By Nichola Saminather and Noor Zainab Hussain
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian banks on Tuesday followed U.S. heavyweights in offering additional daily payments, onetime bonuses and extra paid days off to customer-service employees required to work in branches and call centers during the coronavirus crisis.
Banks have largely been excluded from government-mandated shutdowns in many countries because they are considered an essential industry, meaning most bank branches, call centers and trading floors have stayed open even as many other firms send their employees home.
Royal Bank of Canada
Bank of Nova Scotia
TD Bank Group’s
All CIBC employees are also eligible for up to 10 additional paid days off, and Scotiabank staff can get as many as five additional days off.
Scotiabank’s payment will run at least until the end of April, and a similar measure will soon be in place for eligible international employees, too, according to the memo.
Credit union Vancity is giving branch employees one paid week off for every two weeks they spend working, and they can work one of those two weeks from home taking client calls, according to an e-mailed statement.
Canada’s six largest banks have said they will temporarily limit operating hours and close some branches as part of measures to support social distancing and curb the outbreak of the highly contagious coronavirus.
Large U.S banks are also rewarding employees working on the frontline through the outbreak.
Citigroup Inc
(Reporting by and Nichola Saminather in Toronto and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Peter Cooney)
