Covid-19: ComfortDelGro cuts directors’ fees and senior management's pay

SINGAPORE — Transport operator ComfortDelGro is the latest company to announce that it is cutting the fees and salaries of its board of directors and senior management due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its directors as well as the directors of its subsidiaries SBS Transit and Vicom will take a 20 per cent cut in fees until the end of the year, ComfortDelGro said in a statement on Monday (April 6).

Similarly, the group’s managing director and chief executive officer Yang Ban Seng will take a 15 per cent pay cut while all senior management ranked vice-president and above will see a 10 per cent salary reduction.

The cuts will be effective from April and will be reviewed at the end of June.

Mr Lim Jit Poh, group chairman of ComfortDelGro, described the move as “necessary” amid ongoing challenges.

“These are extraordinarily difficult times. Our taxi drivers, who are our key partners, are already reeling from the dramatic fall in demand — not just in Singapore but in all the locations we operate in,” he said.

Mr Lim added that the firm will see how it can reduce non-essential expenditure while ensuring that there is “no degradation to its services — so long as they are required”.

Mr Yang said that preserving jobs is one of its key priorities.

"My senior management and I are doing whatever we can to ensure that we ride through this storm together as a group,” he said. 

CapitaLand, transport operator SMRT and Singapore Airlines already announced pay cuts for senior management early this year.