Volunteers from SATS battling COVID-19 in community
SATS Ltd. is temporarily redeploying up to 500 volunteers to support Singapore’s nationwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These volunteers will play a key part in protecting public health and safety by taking on various roles such as contact tracing, facilitating public engagement on safe distancing measures, temperature screening at public facilities, and simple care provision in low-risk, basic care wards in hospitals,” said a release from the company.
The volunteers from SATS will receive training before they begin their new roles in public and healthcare services. It is part of the contribution SATS will make to the Singapore Together Movement to harness the commitment and energies of Singaporeans to make a difference to their communities.
“Our people find it deeply meaningful to safeguard public health during the pandemic in this way. At a time when aviation passenger volumes are very low, our people have the capacity, skills and experience to provide much needed support to the community,” Lilian Tan, Chief Human Capital Officer, SATS Ltd.
As early as mid-February SATS was measuring the impact of the virus. “Depending on the duration of this epidemic, there will be consequential impact on the short-term financial performance of SATS,” the company said.
Though short term earnings have been hurt by the COVID-19 epidemic, the company said it was in a strong position to weather the disruptions.
On February 19, SATS initiated a series of cost reduction measures, including a 10 percent reduction in pay for the seniormanagement team. Retroactively from March 1, the company cut the pay for non-executive directors and the President Chief Executive Officer by 15 percent; cut pay cut for Executive Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents by 12 percent; and cut Vice President pay 10 percent. Effective April 1, all Managers to Assistant Vice Presidents will take a 5 percent pay cut.
