PwC sends all employees on 15-day unpaid leave

The 650 employees of consulting and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will take turns to stay at home for two weeks.

The leader of the consulting and auditing market, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Romania, with 41 million euros in turnover in the 2008 fiscal year, will send all employees on a mandatory 15-day unpaid leave as part of a cost-cutting strategy.

The measure will be implemented in the October 2009 - June 2010 period, and targets all employees, who will take turns staying at home.

"Ever since the first signs of economic crisis showed, we started a streamlining of our operations and tried to avoid any measures that would have a significant impact on employees. However, considering that the economic decline is more severe and lasting longer than was to be expected, and that macroeconomic prospects are not encouraging, we cannot help but take new cost streamlining measures," Vasile Iuga, Country Managing Partner of PwC Romania, told ZF.

Big Four companies have been among the most active employers for entry-level positions in the past few years, with competition for such jobs being one of the toughest on the market. Every year thousands of university graduates compete over around 400 jobs made available by PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

Salaries for entry-level positions within a Big Four company start from 600 - 700 euros, according to market information.

PwC ended last year with 650 employees and announced this summer that it would hire 100 staff in 2009.

"In a consultancy firm, people are both the main resource and the main cost. We intend to exit the crisis in the best possible shape, and, when economic growth is resumed, to be able to offer our clients the same standard of services they have been used to. Unpaid leave is a short-term solution, a temporary measure aimed at giving us the flexibility needed on the route towards economic recovery," Iuga added.