South African poultry executives freeze salaries
The executive management team of South African poultry producer, Astral Foods have agreed not to implement its annual October salary increases.
“This extraordinary initiative by the executive management team was taken after careful and prudent consideration of the impact of the prevailing unfavourable market conditions on Astral and the poultry industry,” Astral’s CEO, Chris Schutte said.
“High maize and soya prices together with spiralling energy costs against record levels of poultry imports and weak consumer demand, contributed to this decision. The decision to freeze this year’s salary increases was not done lightly and we will be evaluating this decision from time-to-time. Astral has thoroughly investigated every possible alternative to avoid retrenchments as a result of cutbacks in its operational activities, and it was felt that by not increasing salaries will assist in preventing further job cuts.
“The current status of the poultry industry was brought about by macro-economic factors which management had little or no control over, however this freeze on salary increases can be seen as management’s and the employees’ contribution in an endeavour to avoid more people losing their jobs,” Schutte concluded.
