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PwC Traps Employees For Financial Penalties

PwC just fined me 3% of my annual pay for not reporting a few stocks that my spouse bought prior to the time when I joined the firm. Note this is not a conflict of interest issue or insider trading issue because the stocks my spouse owned had no connection with PwC’s client.

When I joined the firm, I took online training which told me that the value of the stocks of PwC audit client that I worked on and that my family members should not own more than 10% of the family net worth. This sounded reasonable because we never bought such large volume of stocks. I also reported the stocks my family owned as requested, based on the information my spouse gave me.

During an internal audit a few months ago when the firm checked my family members’ personal income, I realized there were a few stocks that my spouse forgot to tell me about, mostly bought before I joined PwC.  Fortunately none of those stocks was PwC’s client.

I was shocked to hear that I am fined for 3% of my annual income, because PwC had never said if an employee missed or delayed in reporting one of the stocks a family member owned or purchased, he or she would be fined for 3% of their annual salary.

Firms cannot just not pay their employees for their services for unjustified reasons, especially if the fine was not communicated clearly to the employee prior to the measure. This is really a robbery from the employees.

I am wondering if what PwC did to me was against the employment law, especially since the stocks were not in conflict of interest.

Anonymous PwC employee

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2 thoughts on “PwC Traps Employees For Financial Penalties

  1. I call BS. in PwC we are all given multiple trainings every year, we have to fill out the Annual Compliance Confirm that clearly requires you to address this level of detail and give an affirmative answer (this confirm takes about 30 minutes, at least, to complete as it is long and involved), and independence comes up on a regular basis for quick trainings during the year. We are not able to get away from it, nor should we. This is very typical of Advisory and outside hires for example who somehow think that independence is something that only is applicable to the audit firm. It is not. If you don’t like, then go work at Accenture. Directors and partners are subject to fines and always have been and this is also known, and they are escalating depending on the level of the infractions. Willful negligence is punished strongly, at 3% it is rather low actually from other fines I have seen or heard about.

    1. I think you are an owned PwC commodity which is at the same societal level as an Internet Troll – sub-human filth.

      In any situation like this, it is the “intent” of the parties involved. This was clearly an oversight.

      Busy couples trying to build careers might not know the other party’s investments and or the inquiry was intra-statement (not known at the time of inquiry)
      Especially if the spouse’s account was managed by a third party.

      Karma catches up to Trolls.

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