Law firm Eversheds Sutherland has launched a scheme reducing the working patterns and pay of some of its employees.
Its Flexing the Working Week scheme allows the organisation to make changes to areas of the business internationally which are not as busy as usual due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
Affected employees could see their hours reduced by up to 20%, reflected with a reduction in pay of up to 20%, in any particular time period.
Eversheds Sutherland has put the scheme in place for a period of six months, effective from 1 June 2020. However, there will be no associated reduction in benefits and the scheme does not apply to trainees, apprentices, or employees under a specific base salary.
Additionally, the organisation has announced the deferral of bonus payments until the end of October 2020, alongside equity partner payments being reduced by an average of 25%.
Eversheds Sutherland is also offering all of its 4,000 employees an additional five days of fully paid leave and an enhanced holiday scheme which gives an extra day of holiday for every four days that employees choose to take as holiday during the current climate.
The law firm is also offering a hardship fund to provide additional financial support to employees who are particularly impacted due the Coronavirus pandemic.
Lee Ranson, chief executive at Eversheds Sutherland, said: “I am really proud of how the business and all our people have responded to these unprecedented times. Notwithstanding the challenges, client feedback shows that we have been able to continue to deliver the highest standard of client service.
“From the very start of the Coronavirus outbreak, we have said that we want to protect not only the strength of the business but also the jobs of our people. To support this, we now want to introduce our Flexing the Working Week Scheme. We have consulted widely across the firm on its terms to make sure we have a scheme which is right for us as a business and for our people.”