Italian restaurant chain Prezzo is offering all of its 3,000 employees early access to furlough pay during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
The restaurant chain has chosen to make the early pay benefit available to its employees through income streaming service, Wagestream to help them cope with any unprecedented financial situations they may currently be facing.
This scheme, which was previously only available to one-third of the Prezzo employees, means furloughed workers can request up to 50% of their furloughed pay, whenever they want it.
Jacqueline Rouse, people director at Prezzo UK, said: “We are currently doing everything we can during these difficult times to support our Prezzo people whilst they are furloughed. It is a really great way of being able to provide that support by giving our people access to their pay earlier than they would otherwise receive it and helping to ease their money worries as much as possible.”
Peter Briffett, chief executive and co-founder at Wagestream, said: “It is not just unexpected expenses that will be having an impact. Many employees will have partners who have lost their jobs, lost income or been effectively locked out of the government’s furlough scheme altogether if they are recently self-employed or their employer has decided to make them redundant instead.
“We’re pleased that our service is useful at a time like this and we will continue to look for ways to help UK businesses affected by the pandemic.”