Ride-hailing giant Uber recently announced that it is laying off 600 employees or 25% of its workforce in India as the company struggles to get business on track during the coronavirus pandemic.
The recent layoffs from its India workforce are a part of Uber’s global downsizing exercise which will affect about 6,700 employees globally. India layoffs will affect employees across departments like customer and driver support, business development, legal, policy, marketing, and finance.
The company has assured the impacted employees of 10-12 weeks of salaries and medical insurance for the next six months.
“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. 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 that we can look to the future with confidence,” said Pradeep Parameswaran, President for Uber’s India and South Asia businesses.
“I want to apologise to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber, the riders, and the driver partners we serve in India,” he added.
The recent layoffs at Uber follows a similar measure taken by its domestic rival Ola Cabs. Ola recently eliminated about 1,400 jobs, about 35% of its workforce.
The Government of India had imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, and since then the ride aggregating service is taking a hit. The central government recently relaxed certain norms for these companies to function with strict social distancing guidelines. However, a fear in customer minds of catching the virus has prevented their sales to pick up again.
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