Greene King launches support fund for staff

GK employees will be able to apply for grants of up to £400, based on their financial needs, from this week.

Grant eligibility will be based on the LTC’s criteria, which is for people who earn less than £2,500 a month and have less than £6,000 in savings. There is no required minimum length of service needed to qualify for support.

The fund has been created with an initial donation of £300,000 from Greene King, with funds raised from a combination of voluntary salary sacrifices from the executive team and a company donation. 

A Gofundme crowdfunding page has also been created for employees to donate to the fund.

The company has said it would negotiate rent payments with tied tenants on an individual basis​ and has directed publicans to its pub partners support fund for help with these payments.

Difficult times

Greene King CEO Nick Mackenzie said: “I am incredibly proud of the way our team members have handled this situation. But I know it has not been easy and, in some cases, our team members are facing real financial difficulties, through no fault of their own.

“The Team Member Support Fund aims to ease some of the burden our people are experiencing right now, we are all in this together and we are directing the funds to help those who need it most.

“And thanks to the help of the Licensed Trade Charity, which has done an amazing job for more than 200 years supporting people in our industry who hit on hard times, we’ve been able to get the programme ready to access in a very short amount of time.”

The pub company has partnered with the LTC to help manage and accelerate the process. The charity has seen an increased demand for its own services since the coronavirus outbreak, with an increase of 600% in new people visiting the charity’s website in March compared to the year prior.

LTC chief executive officer Jim Brewster said: “Licensed trade people are balancing huge practical, emotional and financial pressures at the moment and we are very pleased to work with Greene King to add to the support we are able to offer at this incredibly difficult time.”