"How would you like to spend more time with your family - like the next five years?" is not the kind of offer employees usually want to hear from their bosses in the depths of an economic crisis.

But BBVA, Spain's secondbiggest bank, has posed that question to staff as part of its latest cost-cutting drive. It is hoping at least some of its 29,954 Spanish employees agree not to come to work for up to five years - in exchange for nearly a third of their usual salary and a guaranteed job when they want to return.