Raghav Bahl-owned digital news website The Quint has recently asked about 45 employees to go on an indefinite leave without pay, according to various news reports.
As per a report by news website Newslaundry,the estranged staff include reporters, one of whom recently won a prestigious journalism award, copy editors, a bureau chief, production staff, and the entire technology team. The decision was conveyed to them by their respective heads of department starting Sunday evening.
“Our total team strength is over 200. And about 45 employees have been asked to go on leave without pay,” a senior executive at The Quint told the news website.
Another report by bestmediainfo.com also reported that while The Quint has sent employees on a “furlough” (i.e., leave without pay, LWP) w.e.f. April 15 until further notice, the company’s business news website BloombergQuint has gone for heavy salary cuts of up to 75%.
An email to the affected employees by the media outlet’s HR department said The Quint had “robustly” dealt with “a grinding economic slowdown in India” over the last two years, but now the organisation faced “a truly unprecedented situation”.
Making note of the “double whammy” of the pandemic and the economic crisis, it said the website’s revenues “will be under severe strain over the next 3-4 months, at least”.
The email added the affected employees could avail cash assistance of a month’s salary and withdraw their Employee Provident Fund. Their medical insurance will remain active, and notably, the employees can freelance, even with “our direct competitors”.
The Quint was launched in early 2015 by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur. They had quit Network18 group in mid-2014 after a takeover by the Independent Media Trust, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd.
Meanwhile in other news, the Sunday magazine team at The Times of India that was producing four-pager Times Life was also asked to leave by the newspaper.
Times Life, a Sunday supplement produced by the Times of India, has asked at least three of its employees to leave. Two editors and a designer were verbally informed of their sacking and told to expect official communication from the HR department on April 14. The Life team had six editorial staffers and two designers.
It’s barely been three weeks into the nationwide lockdown and Indian media companies have started using it as an excuse to lay off some of its staff. Not just media organizations, layoffs now seem inevitable in different sectors of the economy. Experts are estimating that the global economy is heading towards a recession worse than the 2008 financial crisis. The International Labor Organization has also predicted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, about 2.5mn people would lose their jobs globally.
Governments around the world are combating this deadly virus with all their might and efforts. Several countries have imposed nationwide lockdowns to prevent its transmission. Taking into account the economical impact of the virus, governments have infused funds in the economy and offered aid to different industries. Governments have also asked to not layoff any employee on humanitarian grounds during this unprecedented crisis.
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