Staff at financial services firm KPMG have been urged to take sabbaticals on one-third of their pay to save their jobs.
Up to 11,000 UK staff have been given the option of switching to a four-day working week, or a sabbatical of between one and three months on 30% pay, as part of an attempt to help the company cope with the economic downturn.
Staff were informed by e-mail of the company-wide ‘contingency plan’, which will also be offered to the firm’s other operations in Europe.
The firm will decide on 16 February how many of the workers, if any, will be moved on to the scheme.
A spokesman for the company said: “This move gives us flexibility to manage the workforce.”
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“It helps us to avoid the need of making any redundancies,” he added.
