While other big Canadian firms are strongly encouraging their staffs to voluntarily scale back their billable hours and take a reduction in pay (but not in their workloads) for the sake of saving jobs (even though that didn’t work out too well at Deloitte), folks at Grant Thornton aren’t being voluntold to do this, they’re being told to do this, according to a tipster.
Here’s what we were told is going down at the Purple Rose of ChicagoToronto:
GT Canada cutting back wages/hours to 80% for all staff levels for July through Sept. Everyone must use vacation time and no OT will be paid out to those that are not provincially mandated. CPAs are not bound by labour standards and therefore the OT/Flex time is not being honoured.
They said these steps are to avoid more layoffs but I think more layoffs will come in Sept/Oct if not earlier. Colleagues are not happy. The system seems to reward those that have not put the extra effort in and punish the ones that have worked hard and put the OT in. Many feel like they are just a number and not a valued team member.
I think it’s important to note that a lot of trust has been lost in the company and many at all levels are actively seeking other opportunities. Could be a larger impact in the long run than GT has anticipated.
Grant Thornton Canada has already had some layoffs during the pandemic but nothing like what happened at Deloitte and KPMG. Hopefully no more GTers will have to turn in their purple roses involuntarily.
Anyway, this is what we heard. If any Canadian GTers have anything else to say, either on the contrary or supporting this news, get in touch with us using the info below.
