COVID-19 Crisis: Udaan Lays Off Over 2,000 Contractual Employees

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to disable the economy, more and more people are losing their jobs. Be it big companies or successful start-ups, everyone is facing hard times.

Now, another known company has taken the drastic step of removing its employees. As per news report, Udaan – a B2B e-commerce platform – has laid off over 2000 contractual employees.

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Udaan was incorporated in 2016 as an online marketplace for the selling of groceries, fashion items, electronic and so on. Since its inception, the Bengaluru-based start-up grew exponentially with operations spreading to around 900 cities across the nation. It even went on to become a unicorn.

In 2019, Udaan raised the biggest single funding round worth a whopping $585 million from Tencent, Altimeter, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital and Citi Ventures.

 The Company’s Statement

According to the sources, the employees were sent emails regarding the job lay off. However, these emails were sent to the contractual staff only. No decision has yet been taken on laying off of the permanent employees. It released a statement, “Driven by economies of doing business in a sustainable manner, we are rightsizing and rationalizing some of our teams on ground in this unprecedented situation of coronavirus.”

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The company also said that they will provide additional compensation for one month to the employees.

Talking to the media, the officials also said, “We are also giving a recommendation letter and support wherever possible to find new employment opportunities through our partners. Additionally, associates who are covered under group medical insurance scheme will continue to get medical insurance benefits for an additional period of three months.”

Over the past few weeks, Udaan has been dealing with a serious downfall in the business, with the non-essential section almost shutting.

The Employees’ Reaction

In reaction to this, someone created a twitter account called Udaan Employees sharing the same news. The twitter account is posting tweets expressing the disapproval of the decision taken by the company.

One post accused the company of removing employees without any prior notice:

Some other posts regarding the layoffs have been tweeted. Some also contain the videos of the affected employees asking for support.

Not Just Udaan

It’s not just Udaan, but many other start-ups who may downsize their employees because of the COVID-19 crisis. As per reports, Swiggy is planning to reduce the cloud kitchen staff next month. Walking on the same lines, Instamojo is looking to slash 6-7% of its total workforce in the upcoming month.

Some other companies that have fired employees or slashed their salaries include OYO, Fab Hotels, Travel Triangle, Ixigo, BlackBuck, InMobi, Treebo, among others.

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