Ulster Rugby have placed all players and coaching staff on the British government's furlough scheme in order to "protect the business" during the coronavirus pandemic.
The club's chief executive Jonny Petrie told the BBC that around 70% of the organisation's 183 staff had been placed on the British government's job retention scheme and that staff had been "very understanding".
Ulster said it was topping up wages to an agreed deferred level of salary across the IRFU.
"Reaching agreement with players was not a challenge as everyone understands the position we are in because of the current climate and environment," Mr Petrie told the BBC.
"Like many others we have sought to take advantage of the relevant government schemes at a time when we still have many of our costs but we don't have anywhere near our level of revenues coming into the organisation with matches not being played.
"As well as VAT holidays and rates reliefs, we also moved quickly to defer percentages of salaries right across the organisation in line with the IRFU and the players were included in that.
"The issue is that deferral was resolved positively very quickly as all the players were understanding of why we were doing it. We had to look at what we could do as an organisation to ride out the current period."
