The majority of Wasps' non-playing staff have been instructed to take three months leave with immediate effect as the club adapts to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

Employees have been informed that the Premiership club will be using the furlough scheme, which sees 80 per cent of their salaries paid for by the government, until they can return to work.

This includes finance, marketing, community and communications departments. Only a skeleton staff base will remain, based from their homes, carrying out critical work to keep the business functioning.

The latest step follows Wasps' players, coaches, analysts, medical and strength and conditioning staff agreeing to a 25 per cent salary cut last week, a measure that will be in place until the club returns to playing Premiership rugby. Wasps are one of a number of top-flight clubs to take this step along with Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, London Irish, Harlequins, Saracens, Gloucester Rugby and Worcester Warriors. Bristol Bears also agreed to an undisclosed-size cut.

Exceptional times

Chief executive of sport, Stephen Vaughan, said he was delighted by the response from employees to the latest move.

"These are exceptional times and we won’t be alone in taking this step and acting to ensure our staff are communicated to and understand what we are doing and why we are doing it," he said.

"The government's furlough scheme has allowed us to not have to ask anybody to take unpaid leave, not to have to make any redundancies, not have to do any of the things that every business would have to do otherwise."

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Thriving and surviving

He added: "It's allowed us to retain our people and in the current climate, people are receiving 80 per cent of their salary whilst being away from work. I think it's a brilliant initiative from the government.

"Every single person we spoke to understands the situation. We all read the news and see what is going on in the world, so to be able to retain these people during such an unprecedented time is great. There are lots and lots of questions of course, some of which we're working through ourselves, it's a very movable beast.

"As far as these things go, I would say the reaction has been excellent and the understanding of what we're trying to achieve here has been excellent. It really has shown that more people are bothered about the club thriving and surviving than anything else and everybody wants to do their bit."

We've all taken a hit

Vaughan confirmed that the club's training ground base at Broadstreet RFC was closed down yesterday.

He added: "We spoke with the playing department last week, along with a number of other clubs. Our playing department is our biggest cost and whilst the team aren’t playing any games, they will be doing their bit to help, and again, everyone’s support around this difficult situation has demonstrated how we all care and want the club to be successful in the long-term.

“We've all taken a cut because everyone understands what we need to do.

"We have built in some stipulations. Anybody earning up to a certain figure is exempt. This covers the whole of our Academy playing squad, for example.

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"Our guys have been great, the coaches and senior players have been fantastic and helpful in sharing our messages. Everybody buys into it.

“We’d like to thank all of our players, coaches and staff for the support and understanding through this difficult time, and we’ll continue to try and work together to ensure this great club has a great future and can’t wait until we can get back to doing what we love.”