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It Seems Andersen Employees Are Getting Back the Money That Was Taken Away From Them (UPDATE)

[Updated on Oct. 28 with additional information.]

A tipster provided us this week with a post-busy season update about the goings-on at Andersen, and it seems like good news all around:

All offices and laptops were closed on 10/16 and 10/19 to give employees 4 days of uninterrupted time off.

Then the following announcements were made at a Firmwide Town Hall on Wednesday, 10/21 for Directors and below:

  • Compensation was made whole to 10/23.
  • Compensation was restored from then on.
  • The monthly home office stipend of $75 will continue to be distributed.

Our tipster also said that promotions and compensation discussions for 2021 will go forward as planned.

[Updated on Sept. 10 with additional information.]

Here’s the latest from the House of Vorsatz: Andersen employees—from director level on down—have now been reimbursed for all salary lost due to Rona-related pay cuts through Aug. 21, according to a tip we received this week.

However, the pay cuts are still in effect for the time being:

While everyone still has a pay cut, the percentages were split in half (i.e., if your pay was originally cut by 20%, the new cut is 10%) from 8/24 on.

We expect to hear more about what is next post 10/15.

Back on July 7, we reported that Andersen gave employees a separate check that contained all their pay that had been cut from April through June 26. At that time, we were also told that the firm was giving employees a $75-a-month stipend to use for home office materials.

We were told by our tipster this week that the monthly $75 work-from-home stipend has been extended.

[Originally posted on July 7.]

From the tipline today:

Andersen employees were made whole through 6/26 based on current numbers. Employees received a separate check/deposit of the balance on our 7/3 payday. We will learn more about another potential check/deposit by 8/31.

We are also receiving $75/month stipend to put towards home office materials. There have still been no layoffs.

It’s a good time to live in the house of Vorsatz!

OK, there’s a lot going on here, especially in the first part. But before we decipher this, let’s flash back to early April, when Andersen folks were voicing their displeasure online about pay cuts being implemented because of Rona fear:

Cutting pay ranging from 5-14% from anyone getting paid less than 100,000 to 40-50% of anyone getting paid more than 700,000. This will be effective on the next pay period. No reversals planned as of now, including after the COVID situation is resolved.

Well, the COVID situation has definitely not been resolved, but apparently things haven’t been as bad as Vorsatz & Co. had first thought. According to the Andersen tipster, the pay cuts are still going on but …

We were reimbursed for all lost income through 6/26. That was the separate check.

The decision we expect to hear about on 8/31 will be to see if we will be reimbursed from 6/27 until 8/31 and/or if regular pay will be restored.

Very few accounting firms that cut pay during the pandemic have offered any type of salary reimbursement to employees, at least that we know of. If that is indeed happening at Andersen, and we have no reason to doubt our tipster, at least that’s some good news in this hellhole dumpster fire that we call 2020.

Related article:

Pay Cut Watch: Did Andersen Lay the Smack Down On Its Employees?