Picking up the same topic as my esteemed colleague Mr Mitting, I too would like to comment on the drastic measures at MPGi, where the majority of employees have voted in favour of a hefty 33.3% temporary pay cut as a radical fix for the company's cashflow issues.

News of workforces accepting (or debating) pay cuts is becoming routine, with Honda and Felixstowe port the most notable recent examples outside of the printing industry. Oh, and in a parallel universe Graham Norton and Myleene Klass.

Last November human resources company Ceridian surveyed 1,000 UK workers and found that one in ten would accept a pay cut in order to keep their jobs. Back then, unemployment was 1.8m. Six months on it is rising fast, hitting 2.2m, and I imagine most people (with the possible exception of undertakers) feel less secure in their employment than they did last year. Perhaps PrintWeek should do a monthly poll on this topic to chart ongoing sentiment in our industry.

The MPGi situation is a little different, though. It's the first time I've heard of such a swingeing cut, albeit for a limited period. While it may equate to around 8% over a year, the sudden loss of a third or one's income is not the sort of shortfall than can be made up by following money-saving tips like cycling to work, making packed lunches and avoiding expensive coffee shops. It's more of a "one large bag of lentils to see us through the month" situation - gruel and gruelling. For those with expensive habits, such as children and ex-wives, I can only begin to imagine how challenging this would be.

MPGi's problems would seem to extend beyond its short-term cashflow difficulties, and this rebalancing of its cost base will only succeed in the longer term if management are able to clearly communicate not only what they're doing and why, but also what is going to change in the future as a result.

Elsewhere, I'm sure this trend for wage reductions in order to avoid redundancies will continue, though workers will need to be convinced that such actions aren't being made opportunistically. Perhaps we can take a leaf out of the Japanese management book on this one. A recent example of avoiding lay-offs through labour cost reductions saw top management accept a 10% pay cut, middle management 8%, and staff 5%. This would seem to be a more equable way of sharing the pain.