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PWC plans to reduce around 175 junior listeners in the United Kingdom and told other staff members that wage increases will be lower this year, while Big Four is struggling with more difficult market conditions.
PWC told some 270 partners Audit last week that they were part of a compulsory redundancy, according to people familiar with the issue, with one claiming that the workforce in the division was too high partly due to a lack of junior staff who voluntarily left.
The cuts, which should take effect in August, contrast with the previous redundancies, which were generally volunteer and have focused on areas other than the audit. The company intends to reduce around 175 roles in total, although the final figure can be higher or lower, one of the people said.
Audit staff of the large four companies – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PWC – tends to be more isolated from economic slowdowns than their consulting colleagues because they benefit from annual rehearsal work, while the advice divisions have undergone a post -paymic slowdown.
Several people familiar with the case said that non -British nationals on visas sponsored by companies were one of those who were redundant. These staff are more expensive to keep for businesses than its British counterparts. PwC refused to comment on this point.
The 25,000 British PWC personnel members throughout the company were also informed of last week that they would receive a salary increase of 2.5% from July, just under 3% that most of the employees obtained last year.
The company has paid bumper salary increases of 9% in 2022 to half of its employees, and 6% in 2023, but has since restricted an increase in remuneration after inflation in the United Kingdom at more normal levels in recent years. Inflation in the United Kingdom was 3.4% in May.
The smaller increases occur while the professional services sector is grasped with lower demand in certain areas, and a sharp drop in voluntarily leaving personnel, who surprised businesses. Companies such as McKinsey and Deloitte have recently reduced staff, in particular by increasing the pressure on underperforming staff in more difficult career journals in the case of McKinsey.
This year PWC has retained an advantage of the pandemic era this year to authorize the staff to take half a day on Friday during the summer, but renamed the initiative internally as the summer of summer “rather than” summer working hours “, said people familiar with the problem.
One of the people said junior staff were more likely to take advantage of the policy than senior colleagues, adding that the change of accent gave more energy to ask junior employees to work on Friday afternoon if necessary.
The advantage was in place for 12 weeks in 2022 during its presence, but was reduced to eight weeks the following year and six weeks last summer. Some superior partners criticized the policy, with a previous one saying that this disrupted a customer -oriented company.
The audit partners affected by the redundancy program were informed that they were cut on a webdiffusion last week which lasted about 10 minutes.
PWC said: “We always keep the form of our business being examined to meet the changing customer requirements, attrition rates and new opportunities.
“From time to time, we may have to reduce the roles accordingly – such decisions are never taken lightly. We continue to invest massively in our people, including remuneration, promotions, bonuses and training. ”
