New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Should I sign a pay cut agreement?

Ask HN: Should I sign a pay cut agreement?
10 by folivore | 25 comments on Hacker News.
Hi! My employer recently announced a 10% pay cut across the board. Where I live(South Africa), employee consent is required. The company sent out a document asking us to sign in agreement. ---- This is the state of things now: * Company laid an unknown number of employees off, and laid them off without letting employees know until a week later in a meeting where they announced pay cuts * The company is pretty much full remote and the office is a nice-to-have. It is in a very expensive part of town. * Lunches once a week are catered at the office * I asked what happens if one were not to sign, and the response was "Oh, we haven't thought about that. We're hoping that everyone pulls together." * The situation will be reviewed quarterly * Company says they don't expect it to last very long, also citing this for why they kept the office ---- A few things stand out to me and feel like red flags, namely: * They chose to cut salaries rather than cut the office rent and catered lunch/snack expenses * They have no plan should someone not sign. I would think they would have planned that out, specially since they went on about how long it took them to make this decision. * Layoffs were hidden until an announcement, which was also ambiguous where people thought it was still coming. ---- My options are to sign and take a pay cut, or refuse to sign and see what happens. Law here says I am entitled to what effectively comes to a layoff, but I can't predict what the company will do. The pay cut also makes my life a lot harder since we were already on a tight budget. I would appreciate any thoughts, knowledge, or advice you might have. I know you are not a lawyer and I am not expecting you to be, but lawyers can't speak to real world experience from others in the industry. I am currently finding a lawyer to assist.