Professional services firm KPMG is seeking to change the terms and conditions of staff employment contracts in case it needs to reduce the paid working week or send workers on sabbatical.

The groundbreaking HR initiative is designed to allow KPMG to request that employees who agree to the change can be required to work a four-day week or take between four and 12 weeks’ sabbatical at 30 per cent of their pay.

Rachel Campbell, head people at KPMG, said that the scheme, called Flexible Futures, was introduced to ensure “maximum flexibility to respond proactively and positively to any change in the market”.

The proposed change to the terms and conditions will last for 18 months, and the maximum salary loss in one year will be capped at 20 per cent. The firm will continue to provide full benefits throughout that period.

KPMG is the first of the “big four” global accountancy firms to ask staff to cut back their hours, in the hope of staving off redundancies. The move follows 300 voluntary redundancies at rival firm Deloitte as a result of slower demand for services across the sector. A spokeswoman there said there were currently no plans for further redundancies or to put in place measures such as short-time working.

Similarly, rival firm Grant Thornton made 130 redundancies before Christmas. The firm had anticipated to make more but saved about 50 jobs through redeployment, voluntary sabbaticals and overseas placements.

Accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward also announced a redundancy programme in December. A consultation to reduce its workforce by eight per cent – or 250 partners and staff- is currently underway.

Other white-collar industries have also been hard hit by the downturn. More than 2,000 redundancies have been made across the legal sector so far, including about 80 staff at leading law firm Clifford Chance.