BT is asking its staff to take a 75% pay cut in return for long-term holidays to help the company ride-out the recession.

British Telecom is offering workers the chance to take a year off if they accept a fraction of their salary as an upfront payment.

It is part of a raft of measures being introduced by BT to cut costs until the economy improves without having to resort to further redundancies.

The former state telecom company, which employs more the 100,000 people, posted £1.3billion losses for the first quarter of this year.

Other options available to staff include a one-off payment of £1000 for going part-time and giving the parents the opportunity to work around their childrens' school holidays.

BT cut 15,000 jobs this year, mostly in the UK, and claims these ‘extremely progressive’ measures are necessary to save further losses.

A spokesman said: “BT is known for it’s progressive human resources policies with flexible working.”

“Being one of the largest employers in the UK, I think this is an extremely progressive way of managing costs during recessions, rather than making redundancies.”

Many UK employers are now looking at ways to reduce their wage bill, while avoiding the high costs of recruiting a new workforce once the economy improves or the bad publicity which comes with laying off staff.

Last month British Airways, which has posted annual losses of £401 million, asked their staff to work without pay to help the company.

The appeal, sent by e-mail to more than 30,000 workers in the UK, asked them to volunteer for between one week and one month's unpaid leave, or unpaid work.

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