Markerstudy confirms that board directors have taken a 50% pay cut

Markerstudy Group has confirmed that its board of directors have taken a 50% pay cut – Insurance Times believes the slash in senior leadership pay is designed to help mitigate the detrimental financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the business’s operations.

Earlier this month, Insurance Times revealed that Markerstudy Group planned to make 478 staff redundant in response to the “huge impact” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Staff were told verbally about the redundancies on 27 May; this was shortly followed by written internal communications.

The firm has already placed more than 1,000 of its 3,000 staff members on furlough, as well as requested that employees not on furlough take a 20% pay cut and give up sick pay.

A contact at the firm told Insurance Times that initially 75% of staff agreed to the pay cut – the remainder were then “persuaded” to take the pay reduction following phone calls from Markerstudy Group’s management.

The source at Markerstudy added that the pay cuts were “definitely sold to staff on the basis of if we don’t agree to this, then we’ll probably be in a redundancy situation” – staff now find themselves potentially facing redundancy despite agreeing to the imposed pay cuts.

Hot on the heels of the firm’s redundancy decision, a spokesperson at Markerstudy confirmed that board directors’ pay would be halved, yet the company declined to comment further on the situation.

At the beginning of June, Markerstudy said: “Within a matter of weeks Covid-19 had made a huge impact on our organisation, which includes leisure and hospitality in addition to insurance and associated businesses.

“Markerstudy sought support from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, allowing us to retain employees at that time who would otherwise potentially have been at risk.

“Markerstudy has worked with staff to try and minimise, insofar as possible, the significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on every area of our business, but despite all our efforts, it has continued to impact our group, resulting in changes to our business models and the necessity to embark on a redundancy consultation exercise.

“Sadly, Markerstudy has not been alone in having to consider all available options and take immediate action.”