‘The integrity of the firm is gone’: Deloitte, KPMG staff angry at pay cuts

One of the Deloitte employees said pay packets should have been immediately reinstated once the company cut jobs. “After all the pay cuts were to avoid job losses.”

“After the redundancies the headcount matched production of the firm and therefore everyone is busy with work – no reason therefore to continue pay cuts. The only reason to continue pay cuts it to protect partner profit.”

Staff signed up to the in-house superannuation scheme also had life insurance payouts reduced by 20 per cent and many claim they were not told about these changes before they were implemented.

The employee said morale at the company had been destroyed as trust in the company’s strategy has been eroded. “This has hit employees hard. The integrity of the firm is gone.”

The 20 per cent pay cuts applied only to workers earning more than $65,000, are set to be reversed on October 1. Partner pay was cut by 25 per cent.

A Deloitte spokeswoman said the company stood by its moves to restructure the company. “We have made our decisions iteratively, based on the financial impact of the COVID crisis on our business, together with the information we have about the ever-changing state of the Australian economy.”

Staff from rival firm KPMG also said they were given less than two days notice before 200 people were made redundant in April. The announcement came as a shock to employees, with some believing the firm had been slow to implement health precautions to protect staff from the virus.

A KPMG spokesman said the company followed health advice from the government and switched to “split working” in March, dividing the office into two groups – one working from the office and the other working remotely. Workers were paid full redundancy entitlements and offered additional out-of-work support.

KPMG reported in August its annual revenue had increased by 7 per cent over the year to more than $1.9 billion, as the firm saw growth in all areas of the business including its auditing, tax, enterprise and management consulting divisions.

KPMG has won five tender bids for contracts with the Victorian government this year worth more than $4.17 million combined. Three of these were paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services to work on projects including the management of the government’s 12-week COVID-19 testing implementation strategy.

The contracts provide KPMG with between three and four months’ work, with the earliest contract worth $459,124 effective from April 20 – three weeks after the pay cuts and redundancies were announced.

KPMG chief executive Gary Wingrove told staff in June the impact of the pandemic on the company had been “slightly better than we thought” and one-third of employees who were given salary reductions would be repaid.

“Our clients are continuing to ask us for support and advice – albeit in different ways to our original plan – we have experienced a trading result these past few months that is slightly better than we thought,” Mr Wingrove said.

Deloitte generated $2.3 billion in revenue last year, up 10 per cent. But it said earlier this year it expected revenue would fall into the second half of the calendar year as a result of COVID-19.

A Deloitte spokeswoman said the company is now finalising first quarter results.”These numbers will be a testament to the hard work of the whole organisation, and the sacrifices made by our people and partners that have contributed to the sustainability of the firm,” she said.