The European Business Association (EBA) polled 134 association member companies out of more than 1,000 companies, 54% of them continue to pay their salaries in full, although a month earlier there were 63%, the EBA said in a release on Wednesday.
At the same time, the business association indicated that the study showed the return to work of 14% of those surveyed companies that had previously suspended work, while in general 28% of the respondent directors reported the full operation of their business.
“A third of the EBA companies are already fully operational. This was reported by 28% of the directors of the companies that are members of the association. At the same time, the majority, namely 68%, are now working partially or with some restrictions. For example, about half, namely 47% of the respondents of companies limited the geography of their activities, 21% switched to online mode, and 19% were forced to close part of their offices, retail outlets or branches,” the release from the survey, which was conducted on April 15-25, says.
Only 4% of companies now do not work at all, although in early March there were 29% of them, the EBA said.
The majority of surveyed companies – 54% – continue to pay wages to employees in full, while 31% also pay additional or advance payments.
“Although two months ago there were slightly more of them – 63% and 45% respectively. At the same time, 7% send employees on unpaid leave, 3% partially dismiss staff, 1% cannot make payments,” the association said.
Of the 15% of companies surveyed that were forced to cut wages for employees, three-quarters cut wages by up to 50%. Some companies are cutting pay for workers who are not yet able to work so as not to leave them without financial security or changing the pay format to hourly. However, there were also companies that reported wage increases this year.
“At the beginning of the third month of a full-scale war in Ukraine, companies not only retained, but also increased the amount of support for our defenders and humanitarian aid. Thus, 48% of our companies help financially (previously – 41%), 46% support workers defending the country (previously – 35%), 43% supply products (previously – 31%), 27% – services, 19% – medicines, 17% – means of protection/defense. Only 5% of companies report that they have already exhausted their resources to help,” the EBA said.
The survey showed that businesses have improved their assessment of their financial reserves: 36% assess their financial stability in half a year, 26% in several months, 18% in a year and another 16% in more than a year. Only 3% of companies report that their financial reserves have already dried up. While a month ago, 43% estimated their financial stability in a few months, and only 17% reported financial reserves for a year or more.
Two months of hostilities caused losses of up to $1 million to 42% of the companies surveyed, another 34% suffered losses in the range of $1-10 million, and 16% report losses of more than $10 million. Estimated cumulative losses of companies participating in the survey amounted to more than $518 million. A month ago, a survey showed cumulative losses of about $350 million.