Transguard Management Takes Pay Cut In Solidarity With Site-Based Staff

On Sunday, business solutions provider Transguard Group announced that it will be reducing management staff salaries for the month of April for the express purpose of covering the cost of housing and feeding its 12,000+ site-based employees who are currently temporarily idle due to the changing market conditions forced by COVID-19.

In an email sent to staff on Sunday evening, Managing Director Greg Ward explained that the reductions will be the equivalent to the cost of providing three meals per day for a month for the 12,000+ employees in the company’s multiple accommodations, a total of more than 900,000 meals: “We are a people business, and if our employees can no longer work because their contracts have been paused or cancelled, it is our responsibility to continue to ensure their health and well-being,” Ward explained in his email.

The reductions, which will be reflected on April pay slips, are on a sliding scale depending on grade, with senior management taking the largest reduction to their basic salaries. “Our site-based staff is the beating heart of our operation, with our management team providing the structure and support that helps move the business forward. One cannot exist without the other,” Ward said. “We refer to this incredible interconnectivity as our ‘one team’ mentality, and this week’s decision to make a sacrifice in our head office as an active show of support for our site-based colleagues is just one way we’re demonstrating that we are all in this together. It is a way of making the welfare of our frontline staff very tangible for our management teams.” This is the latest initiative from Transguard; last week the company announced that it has been actively upskilling and cross-training employees since the beginning of the year: “Not only are we keeping our colleagues actively engaged, we are also empowering them with new skills that they can use in other parts of Transguard as they progress through their careers with us,” Ward said in last week’s press release. This upskilling fits with the company’s recently realigned rosters, which have been maximized to keep more people actively employed through the crisis.

While Transguard continues to consistently deliver its key strategic services across the UAE, including Cash in Transit, Security, Facilities Management and Manpower, Ward believes that it is within his duty of care to do what is necessary to support the company’s site-based staff. “While no sacrifice is easy, we are willing to do whatever it takes to make Transguard even stronger once the uncertainyy caused by COVID-19 is in the past,” he said. “As I say, we are one team, but the present situation has given us the opportunity to show just what that means.”