EMPLOYEES who suffered salary cuts in recent months as the recession took hold might well be wondering if their pay packets will be reinstated soon.

Despite some hiccups, the stock market seems to be on the up and up, and many people are cautiously talking about an economic recovery.

Still, whatever tentative signs of a rebound are surfacing will probably not translate into a widespread restoration of salaries, at least for now.

Most employers are in no hurry to reinstate pay packets to pre-recession levels. Only a handful of companies have done so, and only for selected staff.

Industry experts say many companies are adopting a wait-and-see approach because they do not want to restore pay packets only to slash them again later.

High-profile employers including CapitaLand, Singapore Press Holdings, Venture Corp and most recently Singapore Airlines have imposed salary cuts as a way to reduce costs.

For those companies that have decided to partially reinstate salaries, the primary driver is staff retention, they say.

Examples include Parkway, the largest private hospital operator here, and property consultancy Knight Frank.

Parkway in April restored the base salaries of non-management staff 'as soon as market conditions and business performance improved', said a spokesman.

Wages of senior management were not restored. However, the company does intend to restore base salaries for senior staff 'as soon as market conditions and our business performance improve further', said the spokesman.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.