English cricketers reject 20 per cent pay cut before ECB announces financial rescue package as counties look to ease burden caused by coronavirus
- English cricketers have rejected a request to take a 20 per cent wage cut
- Counties are feeling the financial burden of the coronavirus crisis on cricket
- PCA chief Tony Irish has urged for collective solutions to be sought
- Furloughing playing staff would save counties at least £50,000 per month
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
English cricketers rejected a request to take a 20% pay cut before the ECB announced its financial rescue package last night, Sportsmail can reveal.
The ECB’s chief executive Tom Harrison wrote to his counterpart at the Professional Cricketers’ Associaton Tony Irish on Sunday as the English game braced itself for the financial damage several fallow months of the 2020 season will cause.
However, Harrison confirmed on a media conference call on Tuesday afternoon that England’s centrally-contracted players would not be hit in the pocket by the inactivity triggered by the Covid-19 spread after the players’ union held firm.
English cricketers have rejected a request to take a 20% wage cut amid the coronavirus crisis
Over the past fortnight, the PCA has consistently advised its entire membership to resist being pressured into any form of reduction in salary by their employers until a season schedule has been drawn up, and have pushed for wage deferrals and pension and bonus sacrifices instead as ways of helping ease pressure on county revenues.
In his latest correspondence to player representatives, Irish said he believed ‘there should, where possible, be collective solutions to addressing the challenges’ and so it appears likely that a uniform furlough for domestic players will be agreed during talks between the ECB, PCA and county representatives today.
Furloughing entire playing staffs would save each county a minimum of £50,000 a month. It would then be down to the individual 18 first-class clubs to negotiate a level of top-up, if any, for players on more than £30,000 a year.
Counties are beginning to feel the financial burden caused by the coronavirus stoppage
For example, Worcestershire are understood to have offered their players a guaranteed 90% of their full salaries using the government’s monthly furlough, capped at £2,500, while midlands rivals Warwickshire have pledged to pay their players in full furlough or not.
When an employee is placed on furlough they are temporarily put on a leave of absence and not paid, although they remain on the payroll, meaning that they do not lose their job.
This could be because there is no work for these employees, or that the company is not able to afford to pay them, because of the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
In the United Kingdom, the Government is offering to pay 80 per cent of a furloughed employee’s wages, up to £2,500 per month, until they are able to resume their job full time. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will last for at least three months from March 1.
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