Players face five months of pay cuts
Scottish Rugby has revealed that the top-earning salary cuts for players announced yesterday may last for at least five months.
As the scale of the coronavirus crisis hammering the country emerges on a daily basis and the clear impact it will have on rugby and all sport in the coming months, and potentially the rest of the year, the SRU will cut salaries of professional players on its books on a sliding scale from those on earnings of £50,000 a year or more.
A joint statement was released by the national governing body and the Rugby Players Scotland union, which was set up last year.
It reiterated that Scotland’s summer tour to South Africa and New Zealand was in serious doubt. Chief executive Mark Dodson, whose 30 per cent wage deferral on his £933,000 salary is now a cut, said yesterday in an email to the SRU’S 450 staff that the three-match November series against Fiji, Argentina and New Zealand at BT Murrayfield could also be hit.
The statement read: “The salary reductions discussed cover all contracted Scottish Rugby players earning more than £50,000 a year.
“Subject to the outcome of consultation with players
affected, these player salaries will be reduced by 10-25 per cent from 1 April to 1 September 2020 depending on the scale of pay.
“Players from Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh Rugby, Scotland Sevens, Stage 3 Scottish Rugby Academy and Scotland Women 2021 contracted players will be furloughed under the UK government’s Job Retention Scheme designed to help support any organisation with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Jim Mallinder, the former Northampton coach who replaced Scott Johnson as SRU director of (elite) rugby last year, said: “We are in unprecedented circumstances and one of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic is that all rugby has ceased both domestically, internationally and professionally. This has had a significant impact on Scottish Rugby, as it has on others involved in the game and other sports.
“Together, Scottish Rugby
and Rugby Players Scotland have recognised that we need to take appropriate measures as a result of this. This approach will allow us to protect our players and the organisation as much as possible through this uncertain period.
“This is a rapidly changing picture. We will continue our positive dialogue with RPS to assess what we need to do to protect our sport, our people and the rugby community.”
Players’ union [RPS] interim chief executive Bill Mitchell
said: “Along with all other national player associations RPS is very concerned about the uncertainty surrounding our sport internationally.
“We have worked hard over the last few weeks to find ways of achieving long-term sustainability of employment for our members without impacting on incomes.
“However, we now acknowledge that the growing difficulty of implementing a realistic timetable for restarting global competition makes that goal impossible to achieve.
“Reluctantly, therefore, we are forced to conclude that the actions announced on Monday by Scottish Rugby represent a reasonable way to protect the long-term employment of our membership, while addressing the immediate financial challenges facing the sport in Scotland.”
The statement concluded by saying that the SRU is “now consulting its player employees under normal employment law processes and no further statement will be made during this time”.