Tuesday 09 June 2020 Company welfare Coronavirus
Group Executives donate 20% of their March and April salaries to the colleagues who supported the Italian Health Service during the most acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic
The fund, topped up by the Company, will be distributed in the form of Euro 255 shopping vouchers to Group employees who worked in hospitals all round Italy in March and April.
Euro 255 in shopping vouchers allocated by the Rekeep Group to employees working in the healthcare sector. A gesture of solidarity and closeness made possible by the contribution of the Group Executives who decided to put 20% of their March and April salaries into a fund, afterwards topped up by the Company, to reward approximately 5,200 Rekeep workers physically engaged in more than 350 healthcare facilities in Italy.
This initiative was devised to thank all the Group employees that worked in hospitals all round Italy in March and April, providing sanitisation and maintenance services during the most acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. A commitment which, during the most difficult phases of the emergency, often went beyond their day-to-day professional duty and saw all personnel show a great sense of responsibility and involvement, not to speak of their abnegation.
The contribution, which will be distributed in the forthcoming weeks, will be given in the same amount to employees working in hospitals during March and April regardless of the number of hours or days worked. Among the recipients will be sanitisation workers, technicians providing day-to-day maintenance or setting up COVID wards and workers in clothing storerooms or factories run by Servizi Ospedalieri S.p.A., the Group company that handles the washing of linen and hospital uniforms.
“After having thanked our people publicly and on more than one occasion for their priceless work at the side of doctors and nurses”, explains Claudio Levorato, Chairman of Manutencoop Società Cooperativa, the holding company controlling the Rekeep Group, “through this initiative we wish to impart a ‘practical sense’ to our gratitude in a gesture whose intention is to reward them for their great sense of commitment and also for the overwhelming generosity they have shown during this time. Additionally, the fact that the idea came directly from the Executives once again shows the strength of our team spirit and makes me even prouder of our Group than before”.
But the fund is not Rekeep’s only initiative in response to the health and financial emergency. Since the pandemic broke out, in fact, the Group has already put its hand to many other measures to protect its human resources, including:
- taking out a supplementary insurance policy through the ASIM fund or directly for workers positive to COVID-19 whether they are hospitalised or quarantined at home;
- launching remote working, providing devices and technologies that allow about 1,000 employees to work from home;
- blanket distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to personnel working in healthcare facilities following the instructions given by the various Health Trusts and in government legislation, even at times when available stocks were low;
- monthly advances on COVID wage support schemes for the more than 2,300 employees that could not render their services as a result of the lockdown, including cleaners and maintenance workers in offices, schools and trains, but also headquarters staff;
- special arrangements in the premises of the Zola Predosa (Bologna) headquarters and all the offices in the country: checking temperature on entry, providing face masks and sanitiser gel and measures to ensure social distancing in all areas.
