Molson Coors beverage company taking action to protect workers

March 27, 2020, Montreal, Que. – Molson Coors Beverage Company has announced several initiatives aimed at protecting and supporting employees – including requiring employees to work from home if they are able, creating a new voluntary paid leave program, thank-you pay incentive and paid leave policy, and implementing additional measures to protect its employees who are still working on site.

The company also announced that it is withdrawing, in its entirety, its financial outlook for 2020 and beyond that was previously provided on Feb. 12, 2020, due to uncertainty regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Molson Coors president and chief executive officer Gavin Hattersley said, “These are challenging times for the world and our company, and our priority is to ensure the safety of our people and the stability of our business. I’m proud of how resilient our people have been during this time, including the people who brew, package and ship our quality beers and keep our breweries and business running. I can’t thank them enough. I am also proud of how our teams are stepping up to take care of our communities who need our help more than ever.”

Over the past weeks, the company has rolled out a number of actions to help ensure the health and safety of its people. The actions include:

• Indefinitely extended the work-from-home recommendation for all employees and contractors across North America who are not doing business-critical, on-site activities.
• Created a new voluntary paid leave program for the entire month of April, available to any employee whose work must be done on-site and is at high risk for severe outcomes of coronavirus. Under the program, employees deemed by federal health authorities to be at high risk may elect paid leave of 60 per cent of their regular wages.
• Instituted a thank-you pay incentive for brewery and Molson Coors distribution employees, both hourly and salaried, whose work must be done on site. All hourly brewery employees will receive an additional $5 for every hour of work, including any overtime pay. Salaried brewery employees whose work must be done on-site will receive an additional $200 per week.
• Created a new paid-leave policy, adding up to 80 hours of paid leave to ensure anyone who contracts the coronavirus or is forced to self-quarantine can do so without losing pay or being forced to use their normally allotted sick leave.
• Implemented additional measures to protect employees who are still working on-site to maintain brewing, supply chain and sales operations, including stepped-up cleaning and sanitizing processes and encouraging social distancing.