Uber India lays off 600 with 10-week payout; CarDekho trims jobs

After Ola, rival ride sharing service provider Uber is cutting 600 jobs in India, as part of the global layoffs outlined by the San Francisco headquartered company earlier this month. 

Uber disclosed an India-specific impact from the 6,700 jobs being culled globally. About 600 full time employees across driver and rider support, and other functions in India have been laid off, president at Uber India and South Asia Pradeep Parameswaran said in a statement.

“I want to apologize to departing colleagues, and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber and the riders and driver partners we serve in India. Each will receive a minimum 10 weeks payout, medical insurance coverage for the next six months..." Parameswaran added.

The development comes soon after Bengaluru based ANI Technologies, which owns Ola, let go of 1,400 employees, a quarter of its workforce as business declined by 95%.

Uber globally is creating a renewed focus on its food delivery business in the US given Eat’s resilience during the Covid-19 outbreak as compared to its primary ride-hailing business.

“If there is one silver lining regarding this crisis, it’s that Eats has become an even more important resource for people at home and for restaurants; and delivery, whether of groceries or other local goods, is not only an increasing part of everyday life, it is here to stay,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had reportedly written to employees when the layoffs were collectively announced.

In India, Uber sold its Eats business here to former rival Zomato in January. Instead, Uber launched a new package delivery service in the country.

Also joining the layoffs bandwagon is CarDekho, the new and used cars marketplace owned by Jaipur-based Girnar Software. 

The company told TechCircle it was “constrained to look at rightsizing and salary cuts in a few businesses given (a) period of slow recovery and in some cases permanent change in pattern of consumer spends.”

“Covid-19 has led to disruptions across industries, auto being one of the worst hit sectors. Through the month of March till recently, teams across the board have worked tirelessly towards measures to control costs including our leadership team leading from the front and stepped up to take voluntary salary cuts effective April,” the company said.

An Entrackr report on Monday, citing sources, said that CarDekho had laid off about 200 of its 5,000-odd employees.