Coronavirus: Gojek chiefs, managers pledge quarter of their salaries to ride-hailing drivers

JAKARTA (BLOOMBERG) - Gojek's co-chief executive officers and senior managers have pledged to funnel 25 per cent of their salaries over the next 12 months into a fund designed to support its drivers, merchants and partners during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Indonesian ride-hailing and food delivery giant will also redirect the budget it has set aside for annual employee salary increases to the fund.

That pool of money, combined with donations from top executives, amounts to roughly US$6 million (S$8.6 million), a company spokesman said.

The company did not specify how that money will be used.

Gojek becomes one of the first South-east Asian start-ups to effectively announce management pay cuts as the car-hailing industry grapples with a deepening crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of Gojek's drivers and merchants have seen a drop in income after the pandemic spread across the Indonesian archipelago of 270 million, prompting authorities to impose partial lockdowns including in the capital of Jakarta.

"The fund will support drivers who are the lifeblood of our business and have become a vital part of how cities will cope under reduced movement," co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi said in a statement.

Both executives also own substantial stock in the startup.

While the Indonesian government has announced stimulus packages to counter the fallout of the virus, potentially widening the budget deficit to as high as 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product, some economists have called for bigger government spending.

Separately, Gojek has teamed up with telemedicine app Halodoc to launch an online consultation service.

Indonesia saw the number of confirmed coronavirus cases soar to 686 after as many as 107 new cases were reported on Tuesday (March 24), the biggest daily jump since the outbreak started this month.