Hearts owner Ann Budge says the decision to ask all players and staff to take a 50 per cent pay cut is necessary for their future sustainability.
All league football in Scotland has been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak and Budge claims last Friday's decision has starved the Edinburgh club of around £1-million in revenue:
“This reduction in income is not sustainable without taking immediate action to cut staff costs and overheads. As such, I need to act swiftly and take steps now to ensure that we, as a club, can weather this storm while trying to ensure we are ready to resume operations as and when we move into calmer waters and football restarts.
"I cannot achieve this without the full cooperation and support of all of our key stakeholders, namely staff, coaches, players and supporters. I cannot stress strongly enough that we need everyone to get behind the club to help us through this."
But she in insists the measures the Scottish Premiership strugglers are taking will mean no one's salary at the club will fall below the Living Wage:
“We have asked all full-time employees, managers, coaches, players and player back-room staff, with effect from the beginning of April, to accept a 50% cut in their monthly salary, with the following caveats: (1) No-one’s full-time salary will fall below the Living Wage. In other words, if the 50% reduction would take anyone’s salary below this threshold, the full-time salary will be set at £18,135. (2) Given the uncertainty of the whole situation with which we have been presented, we cannot say how long these measures will be in place. We will, of course, be continuously reviewing the situation. (3) Staff and players alike, who feel unable or unwilling to accept this revision to their contracts, will, of course, be offered the option of contract termination."
The Scottish FA has made an advanced payment to help clubs deal with the financial impact of coronavirus.
£1.5 million pounds is immediately available to members of the Club Licensing and Club Academy Scotland programmes. The money would usually be paid at the end of the year.
