The company acknowledges the city's tough quarantine policies – and is helping out
JPMorgan Chase will be offering $5,000 to each Hong Kong-based employee to pay for their quarantine stay, should they decide to visit their family overseas. In a memo seen by South China Morning Post (SCMP), the company said it will reimburse their workers' Hong Kong quarantine once they return to the city from overseas. It will be offered starting December until November 30 next year and will cover Hong Kong-based executive directors and lower-level staff.
The offer comes amid mounting criticism to Hong Kong's extensive quarantine policy that places inbound travellers for as long as three weeks to keep local infections down, which could mean massive costs for hotel isolation. JPMorgan acknowledged the said difficulty in its memo, while also noting that Hong Kong's policies made family visits to overseas cancelled because of costs.
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"We recognise that the costly quarantine measures in place in Hong Kong associated with COVID-19 have impacted many of you with respect to visiting family and loved ones overseas," said Harshika Patel, JPMorgan Hong Kong chief, in the memo quoted by Today UK News.
"As a firm, we would like to help and with this in mind we have introduced a new quarantine reimbursement programme in an effort to support employees wishing to travel overseas to see immediate family," the memo also said.
The programme was launched following the 32-hour visit of JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, who came in exempted from Hong Kong's extensive quarantine policy. The executive said he thanked the company's Hong Kong-based workers for their commitment amid the pandemic.
