Premier blue chip John Keells Holdings PLC has implemented salary cuts of between 5% and 35% on the basic salaries of all employees in Executive and above levels whose basic salaries are over Rs.50,000, The Sunday Morning Business learns. The salaries of Chairman Krishan Balendra, Deputy Chairman Gihan Cooray and Non-Executive Directors of JKH will be subjected to a 60% reduction while the Group Executive Committee’s basic salaries will reduce by 35%. These measures are a result of the prevailing crisis which has impacted the performance of JKH’s diversified businesses across the group in an unprecedented manner, according to an internal memo of the company seen by us today. These salary cuts will apply to all sectors of the JKH group. They will be in force initially for the 3 months of April, May and June and will be reviewed in June based on the prevailing situation at the time. There will also be a freeze on all recruitment during this time and capital expenditure will not be incurred during this period unless it is absolutely essential. “As this crisis continues to unfold, new challenges are being posed every day, impacting the performance of our business across all our industry groups in an unprecedented manner, compelling us to review every aspect of our operations to ensure we stay lean and agile so that we can weather this turbulent storm, and come out stronger, as we have done many times over our 150-year history. In the last week, through the Group Executive Committee (GEC), each business has carefully evaluated all forms of prudent measures to manage our operations. We are now, however, compelled to look at even tougher measures to reduce all forms of expenses, including staff costs,” Balendra notes in the memo to his staff.