黑洞社区

Zaha Hadid Architects is one of many leading practices that have said they are putting staff on furlough.

Grimshaw, BDP, Sheppard Robson, Broadway Malyan and Scott Brownrigg all confirmed they are taking advantage of the chancellor鈥檚 job retention scheme, while others like Allies & Morrison are considering it.

From global multi-disciplinary Atkins to small design practices like Ash Sakula, architects of all sizes are signing up for Rishi Sunak鈥檚 deal in which 80% of their staff鈥檚 wages can be underwritten by the state for at least three months.

The scheme was announced by the chancellor last month in an unprecedented bid to stop thousands of firms going bust and causing the economy to collapse. Some nine million Britons are predicted to be furloughed, at a cost to the taxpayer of 拢30-40bn over the initial three months. Sunak said the scheme would be extended if necessary.

Last week and asking everyone in the company to take a 20% paycut, with the following, saying it was standing down around 30% of its UK staff.

黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title 黑洞社区 Design contacted leading practices at the end of last week to establish who is already taking advantage of the scheme. Of the 12 that responded immediately, all but three said they have or will be furloughing staff, with at least one of the others actively considering it.

At Zaha Hadid Architects a small number of staff have been furloughed but there have been no redundancies or pay cuts 鈥� and it is planning to recruit more staff in China where it has won new work.

A spokesman said: 鈥淎s all our 348 London-based employees are currently working from home, 15 of our office maintenance team-members are furloughed at this time because it has not been possible for these particular support staff to carry out their work while away from the office.鈥�

He added: 鈥淥ur offices in China have now reopened with all staff returning and we are planning to enlarge their teams due to increasing workloads. We鈥檝e recently been awarded new cultural and corporate projects in China.鈥�

Broadway Malyan said 10% of its staff in the UK and Spain 鈥� the only countries with government assistance packages 鈥� had been furloughed, a total of 22 people.

A spokesman said all staff in Singapore and Shanghai took a 15% pay cut in February and March, and it is currently consulting on the introduction of a similar temporary measure across the entire practice from this month.

鈥淗owever, we will not reduce any salary that would fall below the agreed minimum salary in any of the countries we operate,鈥� he added.

Allies & Morrison has not yet furloughed staff and has made no redundancies but has not ruled out the former.

A spokesman said: 鈥淟ooking to the future, our overarching goal is to protect as many jobs as possible. We are exploring different options on how to achieve this, including participating in the government鈥檚 staff retention scheme.鈥�

Grimshaw said it was looking at putting a number of staff on furlough and reducing hours for some others. It is making no redundancies as a result of the pandemic but early last month it began after the Court of Appeal ruled the government鈥檚 airport expansion policy was illegal.

Robert Sakula, co-founder of Ash Sakula, said: 鈥淲e reluctantly decided to furlough two staff for at least three weeks. But work is still coming in, so we are hopeful for the future, and our plan is to bring them back in asap.鈥�

At Sheppard Robson partner Alan Shingler said while they were still taking enquiries, work on some sites had stopped which was impacting on workloads.

He said: 鈥淭herefore, it has become necessary to furlough some members of our technical team and also some central staff whose roles are not required while we are working remotely.

鈥淲e want to do everything we can to ease the stress on our team in these uncertain times while also protecting the health of our business. We are currently topping-up all our team鈥檚 income to ensure they receive 80% of their full salary and that all our members of staff receive at least the London Living/National Living Wage (depending on location of office). This was communicated to our entire team on a video call. We have not made any redundancies or pay cuts at this time.鈥�

叠顿笔鈥檚 chief executive, John McManus, said they had begun a furlough consultation that was likely to affect all its UK offices.

He added: 鈥淭he economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the entire construction industry has led to our decision to furlough a number of staff during the lockdown period. Our priority at this point is to protect jobs and retain our talented staff during this unprecedented global crisis.鈥�

AHMM also said it had furloughed anyone who was unable to work from home, while Benoy has furloughed 26 people with a further four losing their jobs.

Scott Brownrigg said it had furloughed a 鈥渟mall percentage of staff at the moment鈥� but had not made any redundancies. 鈥淲e are looking at lots of ways to ensure we come out of this as strong as we possibly can,鈥� said a spokeswoman.

Atkins said in a statement: 鈥淲here it is not possible for employees to carry on productive client work in the short term, temporary remedial actions are being taken, including reduced hours and where necessary, employee furloughs.鈥�

Purcell and Stanton Williams both said they were not furloughing staff at the moment.