Ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies recently announced that it has decided to lay off 3,700 employees or 14% of its workforce due to the impact of the pandemic on the company’s business.
According to the US SEC filing made by the company on May 2, the company is all set to execute a plan put in place by company CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Uber will witness layoffs from its various teams around the globe.
As part of this cost savings, Uber said that CEO Khosrowshahi will forgo his base salary for the remainder of the year. Reportedly, he received $1million in 2019 as a salary.
Uber also froze new hiring and withdrew financial outlook as the number of rides dropped heavily across the globe.
The company said the layoffs included its customer support and recruiting teams, and expects to incur about $20 million in costs for severance and related charges.
Meanwhile, there have been various reports regarding the company’s India business. Uber is reportedly looking to lay off about 500-700 employees in India, but it is not yet certain whether those layoffs will be a part of this global layoff drive or Uber India will separately hand over pink slips to its employees.
It is known, how the outbreak of COVID-19 is impacting the businesses and revenues of cab aggregators starting March, this year. Uber and rival Lyft have already withdrawn their full-year financial outlooks as demand for app-based rides dropped sharply across the world after governments imposed stay-at-home orders to curb the transmission of the coronavirus.
It is also being reported that a subsidiary of Uber in the Middle East, Careem, is cutting 536 jobs this week, representing 31% of the Dubai-headquartered company’s workforce.
The development was much anticipated since the company’s Chief Technology Officer and its longest serving executive Thuan Pham resigned from the company.
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