Bank of America Merrill Lynch cuts IT pay rates

IT contractors at Bank of America Merrill Lynch face being laid-off unless they agree to do the same work for much less money.

Those who wish to keep their contracts at the bank must cut their rate by 10% from Oct 5^th, in addition to taking two weeks' leave by Nov 6^th.

Once these compulsory furloughs are added to the reduction on a typical six-month contract, it equates to a real-term pay cut of almost 20%, one affected contractor told ContractorUK.

That makes Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) the biggest IT contractor rate-cutter so far this year, trumping the 4% cut from a French bank (in July) and a 10% cut (without furloughs) from a UK bank in the first quarter.

Despite this, when confirming the pay pinch yesterday, a BoAML spokesman pointed out that affected IT contractors “were able to use their discretion to manage certain aspects of the adjustments.”

His comments seem to relate to some of the IT contractors being able to rearrange the dates of their two weeks’ leave (even though that fortnightly period must still commence before Nov 6^th).

But this rearranging is only happening because despite BoAML promising that the time-off would be “mutually convenient,” specific dates were subsequently foisted on the contractors.  

“They‘re trying to load balance contractors being out of [the] office… [by] dictating specific weeks to take off,” said one. “I managed to fight this with the help of the PM but it wasn't easy.”

Another IT contractor at BoAML (UK) agreed. “The date of these [two] weeks [off] appears to be being dictated,” he said. “Lots of glum-looking contractors [here].”

This second contractor was given a week to accept or reject the cuts, but he criticised BoAML because, he claims, there was “no corporate-wide email explaining the cuts or rationale”.   

The initial contractor did however receive a memo entitled “important changes to your contract” yet he too criticised BoAML because, he claims, he was given just three days to respond to the ultimatum.

“As part of a routine review process, we recently made business adjustments with some of our strategic partners,” a spokesman for Bank of America Merrill Lynch explained yesterday to ContractorUK.

The spokesman, who declined to be drawn on how many contractors are rejecting the ultimatum; added: “This ties directly to our ongoing focus on simplifying the company and delivering for our customers and shareholders.”

One London-based IT contractor at Bank of America Merrill Lynch admits he has formally accepted the cuts, but only because the bank gave him “no time to line-up something else.”

His CV has already been emailed to “several agents” and he now hopes to quit BoAML when it suits him. And anecdotally, other contracts in his vicinity seem free from reductions.

“We’re not aware of any [of our] clients having similar grumblings [about rates or hours],” a London-run IT jobs agency said yesterday, even when reminded that some hirers say rates are too high.

The agency's outlook might help make up the mind of an IT contractor currently at Bank of America, who implies he’s about to leave the bank as a matter of principle, not because of pay.

He told ContractorUK last night: “This is the third rate cut I have had in financial IT in my career and I have to say; the severity and the way it has been dealt with has been absolutely appalling - [it’s even] made the other two occasions look professional in comparison.”

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