COK Sodality Co-operative Credit Union staff have won high praise from their CEO for their dedication and commitment to serving clients amidst the difficulties being experienced by businesses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We could have never got through this period without the staff,” Aloun Ndombet Assamba said during a recent Jamaica Observer business forum.

Every time I go to a board meeting since the pandemic, I start off by giving kudos and recognising its importance in all of this and the sacrifices made. Our doors stayed open the entire period, except for the two weeks when St Catherine was placed under lockdown,” she said.

“During that period, staff members who lived in Kingston and St Andrew but worked in Portmore, called to ask whether they could go to work in one of the other branches, just to keep the organisation going,” she emphasised. “The organisation would not have survived.”

She said that sometimes the staff, especially those who interact with the credit union’s members, were afraid.

“We could not diminish the level of fear that would have existed and [therefore] made sure they had their masks and face shields. We have been very vigilant about ensuring the social distancing and proper sanitisation,” Assamba said.

She further indicated that the staff had a hand in the decision, alongside union delegates and management, to reduce expenses due to increases in security and cleaning and sanitisation.

“We realised that members would have had problems paying their loans and that is how we earn our income. We earn our income on the interest that members pay on their loans and we recognise that in giving a moratorium we would not be collecting interest during that period. So we started working to see how we can do this. We asked the staff for suggestions and they came up with the idea of giving up something themselves,” Assamba explained.

“Our staff have decided to take a two-weeks’ cut in pay. We considered many options of how to do it and eventually it came down to vacations, but not everybody could give up their vacation.”

Employees could either decide to take two weeks’ unpaid vacation, not go on vacation at all, agree to two weeks’ pay cut, or a combination of giving up a week’s vacation and a week’s pay.

If an employee agreed to the cut in pay, instead of one deduction, it would be done over a period of time.

“We worked it out that if you’re taking a week’s cut in pay, it’s one day per month over a period of time, while two weeks’ cut will be two days per month for the rest of the year,” she clarified.

The CEO further stated that, while members are now only applying for small loans, COK has seen an uptick in its loan portfolio against the adjusted budget.