Flames front-office employees will “likely be amongst the first to pay a price” if the NHL owners lockout players amid failed CBA negotiations, according to Eric Francis of the CALGARY SUN. Full-time Flames staffers and contract workers “have recently been put on notice they may be in line for salary cuts -- some coming as early as early as Sept. 16.” Close to “175 full-time employees" of the Flames, which includes those running the WHL Calgary Hitmen and NLL Roughnecks, will "learn more about their financial fate in the next handful of days as the club unveils a plan that will see pay-cuts of various degrees levied.” Flames President & CEO Ken King said, "We have a contingency plan in place -- it would be stupid of us not to." King confirmed that “no one employed” by the CFL Stampeders, which the Flames also own, will be “subjected to CBA-related pay cuts.” As an alternative, employees “have been given the option of taking a sabbatical or prolonged leave of absence -- without pay -- with guarantees their job will be waiting for them upon their return.” The Flames during the NHL’s '04-05 lockout “acted similarly, with many staffers taking a 40% pay-cut to stay with the team.” Several current Flames employees “were of the belief as recently as Wednesday that a blanket policy would see almost all Flames employees taking another 40% hit.” But King said that the action is “nowhere close to being the case this time around, which he will soon communicate to his staff.” King: "No one in our organization will face that kind of a cutback at all." He added, "We have given (the employees) a heads-up and we have refined the plan and will communicate it soon. It will be different for every pay level and job description" (CALGARY SUN, 8/23).
