Grab senior leaders to take up to 20% pay cut during virus crisis

RIDE-HAILING giant Grab on Monday said its senior leaders, including the co-founders, will take a pay cut of up to 20 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Grab employees will also make voluntary donations to partly fund the company's support measures for its drivers, delivery staff and merchants, and Grab will match these donations dollar-for-dollar.

These ongoing support measures include financial assistance and rental waivers for drivers that are hospitalitised due to Covid-19, insurance protection against the disease, and earnings support for eligible drivers.

In addition, to provide more financial and enterprise assistance, Grab has launched two more initiatives.

For one, it has expanded coverage of its Covid-19 financial assistance scheme from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to include Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines. This scheme pays out a sum to Grab drivers or delivery workers who are hospitalised or quarantined due to a Covid-19 diagnosis.

The other new initiative comprises "a variety of merchant relief measures" to help GrabFood merchants with their business during the coronavirus period. Grab will also self-fund, as well as partner with third parties to fund, GrabFood marketing programmes for selected merchants to help them reach more customers and generate additional sales.

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Meanwhile, Grab will also expand its daily-essentials delivery service, GrabMart, to more cities and countries in the coming weeks as well as reskill its drivers to enable them to fulfill delivery orders.

This is meant to create additional earning opportunities for the Grab drivers, the company said in its statement on Monday.

"As consumers adapt to restricted movement and social distancing measures, Grab has seen an increased demand for food, parcels and daily essentials delivery, and a decrease in its ride-hailing business," it added.

Currently available in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, GrabMart will expand to areas including Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia.

At the same time, the company's on-demand concierge service, GrabAssistant, will also expand into new cities in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand and relaunch in Vietnam.

GrabAssistant allows users to hire delivery workers to handle important errands or help buy essential products at stores that are not listed on GrabMart. This gives users who choose not to go out often more delivery options to meet their daily needs.