SMRT Cutting Some of Its Employees’ Pay By Up to 5% Due to COVID-19

Just like Temasek Holdings and CapitaLand, SMRT is also touching some of its employees’ pay to tide over the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

We wonder who’s next. Goody Feed?

Lest you’ve forgotten, Temasek Holdings is freezing all employees’ pay and while the management team can take a 5% pay cut for a year. In case you thought “freezing” means no pay, don’t worry; it just means that there won’t be any increment—even if someone performs exceptionally well.

It’s the same for CapitaLand, though the pay cut for the management team can be up to 15%.

And now, here comes a new challenger.

SMRT Cutting Some of Its Employees’ Pay Up 5% Due to COVID-19

Just like Temasek Holdings and CapitaLand, the pay cut will only affect the management staff.

The SMRT CEO said, “In light of the challenging situation arising from the Covid-19 outbreak, SMRT is implementing a salary reduction of up to 5% and a 0.5-month reduction in bonus for its management staff this year.”

If you’d like to know who they are, it’s this group of people (and maybe even more):

So don’t worry if you drive a SMRT bus—it won’t affect you.

Nevertheless, life must still go on, so the planned recruitment efforts for the new Thomson-East Coast Line will still continue.

In fact, the company appears to be doing its best to help the lower-income people: their taxi arm, SMRT Taxis, is providing an additional $2.5 million in rental rebates on top of the grants provided by the Government to taxi and PHV firms.

This means the drivers get an additional $15 daily rental rebate until March, $10 in April and $5 in May. This is on top of the $20 daily rental rebate provided by the Government.

In the meantime, while the number of confirmed cases in Singapore is dropping, the repercussions the outbreak it created can still be felt throughout the country.

You can actually do your part by…spending money in Singapore instead of buying all your stuff from Taobao. I’m not going to bore you with the numbers, but spending money in Singapore actually helps the economy.

I’m going to buy some bubble teas now. How about you?