Just yesterday, we received both good news and bad news regarding the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) in Singapore.
The good news? There was just one new case of the novel coronavirus and it is linked to the cluster.
The confirmed case is a 75-year-old woman is linked to The Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster and had experienced symptoms on 9 February when she visited a GP.
She returned to the same GP on 17 February and was treated as a suspect case and sent promptly to Tan Tock Seng Hosptial by ambulance.
However, the bad news is that the number of people in the intensive care unit is now at seven.
The COVID-19 outbreak situation is serious, and companies are taking drastic action, including state investor Temasek.
All Temasek Employees Have Salary Frozen While Senior Management Might Take Pay Cut Due to COVID-19
Due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, state investor Temasek will be implementing a salary freeze which will affect all its employees for its April compensation exercise.
This will also include promotion increases. The senior management team which includes managing directors and those above can take a voluntary base salary reduction of up to 5% for a period of up to one year, according to the company’s statement.
A year is a long time seh.
Besides that, the senior management will also be able to take a partial cut in their annual bonuses this year.
But perhaps what’s the most interesting is that the budget that had been put aside for the salary increases and the voluntary base salary reduction from senior management which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Temasek, will be donated to T-Touch.
Lest you’re unaware, T-Touch is Temasek’s staff volunteer initiative. This amount will be put aside to provide help and support to the community during the coronavirus outbreak.
According to TodayOnline, the main aim of this initiative is to exercise practising restraint during challenging times.
Not The First Time
Lest you’re unaware, this is not the first time such salary reductions have been implemented.
In fact, not too long ago in 2003 and 2008, the state investor also implemented salary reductions during past trying times for Singapore, such as during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
So well, even Ah Gong is doing its part liao; any bosses reading this?
