GM Paul Guidone

Vaccine Mandates, Compensation Review, and Next Steps

To Our Community,

As I am sure you will recall, in September the White House mandated that all companies with at least 100 employees require mandatory vaccination or weekly testing for the unvaccinated. The Biden administration ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to finalize the guidelines, which then went to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval.

Like many companies, we have been waiting for the final rules to be announced before determining our next steps. Those rules were made public today.

This morning the White House released the final requirements and announced that companies have until January 4 to comply.

At this point we are reviewing all the details to make sure we understand the requirements of the Emergency Temporary Standard from OSHA. We should know more next week, including an analysis of how the new requirements compare to our existing practices. Stay tuned for details.

Compensation Review

Earlier this fall the leadership team announced a plan to completely change our salary structure to reward employee performance more objectively. The first step in that plan was a comprehensive salary review, which we have been working on over the past several weeks. We engaged a third-party organization to help us with this, one with specific knowledge of the Vt. and N.H. employment markets.

Today I am happy to report that this organization has gathered and analyzed the data and will be presenting a snapshot to our HR teams on November 18. We expect to have a final package with all of the data on December 6. At that point the leadership team will determine next steps and begin looking at any potential adjustments.

I know I speak for the entire leadership team when I say I am excited about any plan that is focused on the topic of rewarding employee performance.

I look forward to sharing more information with you as it becomes available, which should be soon.

Wrap Up

Thank you to all of our members and shoppers for your support. We will talk again next Thursday. In the meantime, be kind to one another and to yourselves. As always we look forward to serving you in our stores and at the curbside.

Onward and upward,

Paul

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Paul Guidone

Paul Guidone, CFA, spent the better part of four decades in the investment management business here and abroad. He held positions ranging from analyst through Deputy Chairman and Group CEO, at organizations such as Citigroup (US) and The HSBC Group (London and Hong Kong). He joined the Co-op in 2016 as the CFO and in 2018 became Strategic Advisor to the General Manager. Paul was appointed by the Co-op Board as interim General Manager in March 2020 and General Manager in September 2020. To contact, email PGuidone@coopfoodstore.com.

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