“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 second-biggest 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 return.