Uber India Lays Off around 600 employees as COVID-19 decimates its business

Bengaluru, May 26: Ride-hailing Uber's President Pradeep Parameswaran on Tuesday announced the company laid off 600 employees in India as part of its plans to cut 23% of its global workforce as the company looks to cut costs amid pandemic.

 

 

 

The job cuts have been implemented across various segments ranging from customer and driver support, business development, legal, finance, policy, and marketing verticals.

"The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full-time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month," Pradeep Parameswaran, President, Uber India, and South Asia said in a statement.

 

According to the company the retrenched employees would be paid 10 to 12 weeks of salary, besides medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support, the company said.

 

"Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologize to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber and the riders and driver-partners we serve in India," Parameswaran further added.

 

So far, Uber has globally laid off over 6,700 employees.

 

The travel and tourism and hospitality industry have been facing the heat of coronavirus lockdown and revenues are drying up for these companies. Both Ola and Uber’s business came to a halt in late March as India enforced a countrywide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. The home ministry has eased restrictions for the cab-hailing services in the fourth phase of lockdown, allowing the likes of Ola and Uber to resume operations. The carpooling feature, however, still remains restricted.

 

Last week, cab aggregator Ola had cut 1,400 jobs as revenues fell by 95 percent in the last two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Zomato had fired 13 percent of its 4,000-employees, while Swiggy had laid off 1,100 staff."

 

Apart from online companies Arvind Krishna-led tech giant, IBM lays off 'thousands' of employees.