Dubai firm to pay back salaries deducted during COVID-19

Sajjad Ahmad, Staff Reporter

Nothing can be more frustrating for employees of any firm than getting their salaries deducted by employers and any explanation given by the firm fails to console them.

However, since the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses across the globe to go for cost cutting, salary deduction became a norm and employees have no option but to take the cut in their stride.

But as things are inching towards normalcy, a Dubai-based firm has come up with an idea, which has given all of its employees a reason to smile.

Danube Group has announced to return back 30% of the salary deducted during COVID-19 pandemic in the month of April and May across the group. 

The Dubai-based conglomerate is the first ever company of the Middle East to announce such initiative for its employees.

The decision was complemented by the organisation with the rehiring of over 350 people at a time when other organisations are either cutting down on their workforce or asking their employees to stay on board without being paid for an indefinite period.

The decision will definitely motivate the employees to go beyond their limits and deliver the best possible result to the organisation.

One of the Group employee said: “We are blessed to be in a company who treats us like a family. Though, during this tough time the salary was deducted but we are happy to get the same back in our account. “

Rizwan Sajan, Founder and Chairman of Danube Group said, “our Group has been doing considerably well. Of course, there had been some hitches along the way due to this pandemic and we found that nothing was unmanageable on account of the determination of our employees to sail through this biological and economic disaster intact. Those efforts have now translated into us being able to hire more people now and return the salary that was deducted.” 

He added, “We have been able to the reach where we are with the support and determination of our employees and we thought, having more of them would take us further than where we are today. On top of that, we feel it is our responsibility to return the amount as i was really feeling sorry about this whole deduction process. Trust me not even once the salary of our staff is delayed in the last 27 years and this deduction was first time in Danube’s history. Hence I am extremely happy.”