25th July 2011, 04:50 PM
Sorry, yes - on an individual basis they can, though they run the extremely high risk of forcing themselves out of business by trying to be responsible to their staff. The only way they would do this is if they could get an agreement from all the other companies that they were all going to up the stakes so that we can earn a decent rate. That, though, would be a cartel, and so far as my limited knowledge of corporate law goes, that's illegal, isn't it?