Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR), the company behind the Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes fast-food chains, is accelerating efforts to protect the business as COVID-19 containment measures pummel its industry. In an open letter, CEO Jose Cil on Monday outlined some of those initiatives, which are aimed at helping employees and franchisees navigate through what executives called an "unprecedented crisis." Image source: Getty Images. Restaurant Brands is providing paid sick leave for up to two weeks for employees who need to seek medical care or self-isolate. The conglomerate also announced new measures focused on helping franchisees through a time of collapsing customer traffic levels. These include cash advances and a new temporary rent structure that features a 45-day deferral for many payments. "We have been faced with dozens of challenges and decisions that we haven't had to deal with before in our lives or careers," Cil said while praising employees and executives throughout the global restaurant system. Management said the fast-food business is in a strong enough financial situation to endure this challenge while still helping franchisees. Restaurant Brands has $2.5 billion of cash on hand today after having fully drawing down on its $1 billion revolving credit line. 10 stocks we like better than Restaurant Brands InternationalWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Restaurant Brands International wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of March 18, 2020 Demitrios Kalogeropoulos has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source