Lai See

E-mail complaint shakes the foundations at architectural firm

We hear of discord in the Hong Kong office of RMJM, one of the world's largest architectural practices. The firm's principal architect, Catherine Siu, has been suspended after firing off an e-mail to the company's chief executive Peter Morrison, as well as circulating it to all staff, in which she strongly criticised the way the firm was managed, according to a number of stories by the British publication, Building Design.

She said in the e-mail that she and other senior figures at the firm had filed a complaint with the Labour Department over 'your decision not to honour your obligations to pay staff salaries in Hong Kong, in full and on time'.

If the firm is prosecuted and found guilty, it could be fined up to HK$350,000 with directors facing three years in jail.

In the e-mail Siu accused Morrison of 'stripping out all the cash' from the Hong Kong office, making it difficult to pay staff and creditors. For her pains she was suspended while, RMJM said, it investigated her 'bizarre and irrational behaviour'.

However according to the newspaper, The Scotsman, the firm's commercial director Declan Thompson admitted salaries had been delayed over the Lunar New Year period because of slow payments from clients. Morrison conceded that the past few years had been difficult for the company but told The Scotsman: 'There is a very limited element of substance to Catherine's e-mail, but these are the calculated exaggerated writings of someone who, it is now clear, has been working against the interests of RMJM, our team, our partners and our clients.'