One of Asia's largest real estate companies CapitaLand has also been facing the impact of coronavirus outbreak on its business. To deal with the situation the group has announced a pay cut for board members and senior management as "a show of togetherness and solidarity" with stakeholders amid the virus outbreak.

CapitaLand Group Chief Executive Lee Chee Koon shared that the sudden virus outbreak has affected the group's businesses and those of its partners and tenants, especially in China and Singapore. The group and its leadership has hence stepped up to ensure the well-being of its staff, tenants and patrons. This includes giving targeted relief measures to tenants and contributing to efforts to help the community and medical staff dealing with Covid-19. And while they divert their efforts in helping all stakeholders through the situation, CapitaLand will proactively manage its business, Koon added. 

"CapitaLand will fight and ride through this difficult period together with our stakeholders," said Koon.

All the board members and senior management are set to take a 5 percent to 15 percent reduction in their board fee and base salary, with effect from 1st April 2020. Further, the group has also imposed a wage freeze for all staff at managerial level and above. In fact, to support its retail partners, a portion of the compensation for the group's managerial staff in Singapore will be paid in CapitaVouchers for use in CapitaLand malls. Roughly $2 Mn worth of vouchers will be distributed in total.

CapitalLand is not the first company to freeze wages of their employees and cut pays for senior leaders. Others like Temasek and Singapore Airlines have also taken similar steps. While Temasek is planning a firm-wide wage freeze and has asked its management to take a voluntary pay cut for up to a year in its compensation exercise this April, Singapore Airlines (SIA), meanwhile, has frozen hiring and is considering other measures, including asking staff to go on voluntary no-pay leave. 

As the virus outbreak continues to impact work and business in Singapore, a few more companies may take similar steps or find other ways to cope with the situation. Meanwhile, what’s most important for the entire community is to take care of people’s health. Read this article to know how employers in the region are taking additional measures to ensure employees’ safety: Employers gear up to take on Coronavirus