In a bid to cut costs amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Uber India announced to lay off 600 full-time employees on Tuesday. These employees made up about 25 per cent of the company's workforce in the country.
The affected employees would be from the positions across driver, rider support operations and others, President for Uber's India and South Asia businesses, Pradeep Parameswaran, said in a statement.
"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," Parameswaran said.
He apologised to his departing colleagues and 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 that we can look to the future with confidence. 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."
The company said that the employees would be paid around 10 weeks of salary, along with medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support.
So far, globally, Uber has laid off over 6,700 employees, including 3,700 earlier this month.
Earlier, Uber’s biggest rival in the country Ola announced to lay off 1,400 employees. Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal had said that revenue of the company has fallen 95 per cent in last two months due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
(With IANS inputs)
