We’ve Introduced Paid Overtime for all Staff, and It’s Time for the Industry to Follow our Example
Our director, Oli Lowrie discusses the high-profile overtime debate and how Ackroyd Lowrie is proud to be one of the UK’s first practices to implement a new policy focused on transparency and inclusivity…
“The poor treatment of junior architectural staff across the industry has, quite rightly, received much press in the past few months largely due to the Future Architects Front* movement.
“This campaign, supported by more than 850 signatories, surveyed a range of junior level staff and revealed shocking evidence of low or no wages, zero hours contracts and a common culture of exploitation. RIBA has been urged to act and president, Alan Jones has gone on the record to state they are considering enforcing all chartered practices to pay overtime.
“However, this endemic problem is not only restricted to junior staff. The architectural industry has a huge challenge with its work/life balance, and this is storing up problems that are spilling out into low profitability, staff burnouts, mental health issues, and a lack of diversity in the profession.
“When staff work unpaid overtime to hit a deadline, it is the client who benefits, and the architectural practice simply manages to deliver the project for a fee that was too low to start with. For the sake of the future of architecture, it is imperative that employers stop allowing or encouraging their staff to subsidise their clients at the cost of their own wellbeing.
“At Ackroyd Lowrie we’re striving to define and deliver the cities of the future. To do this we need to build a team from diverse backgrounds, with varied experiences of the city. The first step to opening up the industry so that it can properly support staff is to pay everyone for every hour they work and this is the policy that we have brought in with immediate effect at Ackroyd Lowrie.
“Whilst we’re not encouraging an overtime culture, we’re also not unrealistic and recognise that sometimes additional time is necessary to complete work. This new policy, which carries a maximum cap of 16 hours per month, enables us to record the time spent, re-pay the staff member and ultimately, pass the costs onto the client, who benefits from it. If further time is anticipated, which we strongly discourage, then a case-by-case review will take place, either re-resourcing or increasing the level of compensation. We urgently encourage other practices to follow our example.”