Why is it insane? Maybe I should have clarified - your employer cannot cut your pay without a very good reason and you have to agree to it. In general it's a very tricky process legally, just like letting someone go - you need to make sure it's done correctly or you will lose in court. They cannot just say "from next month you will work extra 2 hours a week at same pay". Like....no? That's not in the employment contract we have signed, it binds both sides. And yet that's exactly what is happening to rail workers.
Your clarification makes more sense -- I also consider reduction in pay to be equivalent to firing, a piecewise one. I understand that it means that has to follow all rules about firing people, and that much I also find reasonable. At the same time, I find the rules about firing commonly found in Europe as wrongheaded, but that's not my complain above, which is about "illegality of pay reduction".
Do we count price increases on healthcare provided through an employer as a paycut? If so, everyone I know has been getting paycuts for years even ignoring inflation.
