RollOnFriday can reveal that Real Estate associates at Field Fisher Waterhouse who took a voluntary pay cut well over a year ago are still being underpaid. Whilst their colleagues who were happy to see their mates hung out to dry are still receiving full salaries. 

Associates in the department were told in February 2009 that there would be two compulsory redundancies. They asked whether agreeing to a pay cut would make a difference, and the firm said that a 10% cut would be enough to stave off the job losses. The associates discussed this, and according to the firm "most, but not all, volunteered to take a cut, but fortunately enough did so that we did not have to make the two positions redundant".

So, in other words, the majority of the department was prepared to take a hit in order to ensure everyone kept their jobs. Apart from a few tossers delightful associates who presumably knew they'd be safe and didn't see why it should be their problem. Nice.

Fast-forward 16 months, and the associates are still having their pay discounted by 10%. Their less charitable colleagues are still doing fine, of course, as are the other associates in the firm (many of whom will actually get pay increases).

FFW's real estate lawyers. Or at least the nice ones.

A spokeswoman for FFW denied reports from the associates that had been assured that the pay cut would only last for a year, but confirmed that the situation wouldn't be formally reviewed until October. Anthony Phillips, Head of Real Estate, told RollOnFriday that "we are very grateful to those associates who chose to take a salary cut in February 2009 as this did save two jobs in the department at that time. We have always planned to restore salary levels as soon as is realistically possible and we have reviewed the position regularly. Our next formal review is in October (as this the half way point of our financial year) when we will have clear picture of how we, as a department, are performing against our targets. All the current indicators are strong, and we are hopeful to be able restore full salaries at that time. This has been fully communicated to our associates, and we are grateful for the loyalty and support that they have shown."

However FFW has not had the best year - profits were down 17% to £16.7 million, on the back of turnover falling 3% - so RoF will report in October on whether the associates actually get their pay restored.