OLA lays off 1400 staff members from rides and food buz; Know why-

NewsBharati    20-May-2020 16:27:55 PM
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Bengaluru, May 20:Ride-hailing aggregator Ola's CEO and founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced that the company is laying off 1,400 staff from rides, financial services, and food business. This is after OLA revenues declined by 95 percent in the last two months due to coronavirus pandemic.
 
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In his email to the employees, Aggarwal made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is “very unclear and uncertain” and the impact of this crisis is “definitely going to be long-drawn for us”.
 
“The fallout of the virus has been very tough for our industry in particular. Our revenue has come down 95 percent over the past 2 months. Most importantly, this crisis has affected the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies,” the Ola CEO said.
 
The Ola CEO said the one-time exercise will be completed by the end of this week for the company's mobility business in the country, and by the end of next week for Ola Foods and Ola Financial Services. "No more COVID-related cuts will be done after this exercise," he said.
 
“These decisions are not reflective of anyone’s performance and are purely a function of the uncontrollable circumstances that we have been faced with,” Aggarwal said.
 
He pointed out that people are preferring to work from home and air travel has also been limited to essential trips, resulting in long-drawn implications for the company. "The world is not going to revert to the pre-COVID era anytime soon. Social distancing, anxiety, and an abundance of caution will be the operating principles for everyone," said Aggarwal.
 
The Ola CEO said that we will have to learn to live with the virus and resultant implications. He also said that the company has undertaken several initiatives to help the driver-partners in distress. Lease rental waivers, zero-interest loans or Ola Sahyog, individual and institutional contributions such as Drive The Driver Fund, citizen initiatives such as Ola Emergency and Ola Connects are some of the measures undertaken by the company to help the drivers as well as frontline workers amid the pandemic.
 
All the impacted employees would receive a minimum financial payout of three months of their fixed salary irrespective of the notice period. "All eligible ESOPs will vest forward to the closest quarter. For those who may not have completed a year, as an exception, we will enable pro-rated vesting for the period spent with us," he said.
 
Earlier uber has laid off 3,000 people globally and the move is expected to impact India operations as well. Zomato has also laid off 13 percent of its 4,000-staff, while Swiggy said it will let go off 1,100 employees.