Carry on working from home full time but you’ll have to take a 20 per cent pay cut, staff at top legal firm are told
- Stephenson Harwood said deal would be offered to most lawyers and other staff
- Junior lawyers have starting salaries of £90,000, so it would cost them £18,000
- Equity partners, who are on an average of £685,000, not eligible for the scheme
Staff at a top City law firm will be given the option of working from home full time – but they’ll have to take a 20 per cent pay.
Managers at Stephenson Harwood are giving lawyers and other employees the option to stay at home permanently in return for the financial sacrifice.
Junior lawyers at the company have starting salaries of £90,000, meaning anyone taking up the officer would lose around £18,000.
Managers at Stephenson Harwood are giving lawyers and other employees the option to stay at home permanently in return for the financial sacrifice
A spokesman told the Times the offer would be available to all staff in London and most of its international offices, but partners would not be eligible.
The firm, which dates back to London, employs more than 1100 staff in the UK with eight offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
It is among the 50 highest-earning legal firms in the UK
Specialisms include maritime law, intellectual property and real estate, and full equity partners receive an average of £685,000.
Stephenson Harwood said it expected only a few staff to choose WFH full time, because, ‘For the vast majority of our people, our hybrid working policy works well’.
Currently staff on a hybrid working arrangement can WFH two days a week.
The firm’s pay reduction policy for full time WFH comes after the firm recruited lawyers during the pandemic who were not based in London, where living costs tend to be higher.
The spokesman said that in theory a senior associate solicitor could choose to WFH full time even if they lived in London, but it is likely they would be ruled out for promotion to become a partner.
Many companies are facing a battle to tempt staff back into the office, with some offering inducements such as free lunches and cinema evenings.
Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg is leading the government’s efforts to persuade civil servants back to the office.
The firm, which dates back to London, employs more than 1100 staff in the UK with eight offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East
Yesterday, the minister hinted staff could see their London weighting scrapped if they do not come back in for most of the week.
According to calculations by the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group, removing the subsidy – which is awarded to offset the higher cost of living in the capital – from those who work from home three days a week or more would save up to £250 million.
If such a move was imposed, it would affect many working at the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions, who are currently being asked to go into the office for just two days a week.
The Cabinet Office last night insisted that the estimate was too high because more London-based civil servants are going into work for the majority or all of the time. But Tory MPs welcomed the idea.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said: ‘If they simply refuse to come back to work for the majority of the week surely London weighting should be removed. They are paid to come into work, and if they are not, they should not get that money.’
Danielle Boxall, media manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers facing a cost of living crisis want to know they are getting value for money from the Civil Service. If mandarins insist on going remote long-term, officials must make savings.’
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