Just months after it laid off 1100 employees across various markets in May, food tech unicorn Swiggy recently announced that it has decided to let go of another 350 employees, in what is being termed as the second wave of layoffs at the company.
According to the foodtech giant, the industry has recovered only to about 50%, a figure very less than what was earlier expected by the organization.
In an official statement, Swiggy said,”In May, we began the exercise of realigning resources to create capacity in higher potential areas with the optimism of the business attaining pre-covid-19 levels in the near-term. However, with the industry still only having recovered to about 50 per cent of its peak, we have to, unfortunately, go ahead with this final realignment exercise, which will result in the net loss of 350 jobs.”
However, a Swiggy spokesperson has confirmed that this is the final ‘restructuring’ exercise, undertaken by the company and there are no additional layoffs expected in the coming months.
In order to help these estranged employees, the foodtech major has announced similar severances like it offered to its employees laid off in May. Swiggy said it will provide a minimum three to eight months of salary, including an extra month of ex-gratia for every year served in addition to their notice period pay, to its laid off employee base.
At the time of layoffs in May, Swiggy had decided to accelerate the ESOP vesting process to the nearest quarter (including the months of notice period) and also decided to provide accident and term insurance for impacted employees (until December’20) , which will be applicable to its current laid off employee base, as well.
Earlier in June, Swiggy had also said that it is merging operations of its on-demand premium food delivery service Scootsy, which it acquired in 2018, within the Swiggy platform.
The recent layoffs at the food giant are a sign that there is still a lot of time for businesses to get back to the pre-COVID times and financial recovery still remains months away. The food-tech industry has been on the brink of collapsing due to the fear of catching the virus. Even after offering extensive discounts and payment concessions to its customers, food-tech companies in India are heavily struggling to keep themselves afloat.
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