Coronavirus: PwC goes to four-day week

PwC will have most of its 8000 strong workforce in Australia on a four day week from May 1 as it cuts pay and bonuses.

PwC CEO-elect Tom Seymour. Picture: Supplied

Accounting firm PwC will have most of its 8000 strong workforce in Australia on a four day week from May 1 and plans to cut partner income by as much as 40 per cent in the next financial year as it seeks to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

In a statement released on Monday, PwC chief executive elect Tom Seymour said the firm was doing all it could to hold off any redundancies.

But he said that most staff would move to a four day working week from May 1 at the latest, except in some areas such as audit where people would still be required to work full time.

He said income draws for its 700 partners had already been reduced by 20 per cent from March 1 and partners had been advised that their incomes would be reduced in the range of 30 per cent to 40 per cent next financial year with no bonuses.

The firm has also announced that variable income such as pay rises and bonuses for partners and staff has been deferred as well as July 1 partner admissions.

“These are challenging times for all Australian businesses and PwC Australia is not immune from the economic disruption being caused by this global health crisis,” Mr Seymour said.

“We said a few weeks ago that we had no plans or desire to undertake redundancies as a result of COVID-19 and we remain committed to that goal.”

He said the firm had seen significant changes to its mix of client work during the past few weeks with many clients putting new projects on hold and some transactions not going ahead.

But he said that clients were seeking the firm’s services in other areas such as protecting the welfare and well being of their workforce, supply chain management, operational resilience and business continuity planning.

“Whilst we cannot underestimate the significant impact this health crisis is having on this economy, it will pass,” Mr Seymour said.

“And when it does pass, we need our skilled workforce ready to go and able to support our clients as the economy powers back up.”

The PwC announcement is the latest of many cost cutting moves in professional service firms across the country in response to revenue downturns as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

It follows last week’s move by rival firm KPMG announcing on Thursday that it would be laying off 200 of its 9,000 staff across Australia.

KPMG said it would also be making salary cuts of 20 per cent over four months from May for salaried partners and staff earning more than $62,000 a year, and other changes designed to cut costs.

KPMG chief executive Gary Mr Wingrove, said the firm’s equity partners would see a 36 per cent cut in their salaries for the four month period and forego a partner distribution payment due in mid-April which equates to five per cent of annual earnings.

The KPMG announcement comes after mid-tier accounting firm Grant Thornton has seen partners taking pay cuts of between 20 and 50 per cent with other staff agreeing to cut hours and pay.

Professional services firm Deloitte, which has some 11,000 staff in Australia, announced last week it would be shutting down the firm for a week later this month as part of its response to the crisis.

But a spokesman for the firm told the Australian on Thursday that there had been no job cuts at the firm to date.