Uber lets go of 600 employees in India

Update (May 26, 12 pm): This article was updated as Uber confirmed the layoffs in India.

Uber confirmed it has laid off 600 of its employees in India as Covid-19 continues to hit its core ride-hailing segment.

Photo credit: Elliot Brown

The US-based company has cut jobs in its driver support, business development, legal, policy, marketing, and finance teams. The move is part of its restructuring plan that has affected a total of 6,700 people this month.

“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,” Uber India and South Asia president Pradeep Parameswaran said in a statement.

It was earlier reported that Uber would be slashing up to 700 jobs in India, or roughly 25% to 30% of its overall headcount of over 2,000 people in the country, according to sources.

Tech in Asia had also confirmed with a top executive at the company that Uber will be laying off about 20% of its employees, including about 500 staff members in India.

In a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated May 2, Uber revealed plans to reduce the headcount for its customer support and recruiting teams by about 3,700, which translates to about 14% of the company’s total workforce, as it sees lower trip volumes in its ride-hailing segment.

In addition, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had agreed to waive his base salary for the remainder of the year.

In the Middle East, Uber subsidiary Careem had also slashed its workforce by about 31%, affecting 536 employees. The company, however, assured those departing the firm that they would receive severance pay, equity vesting, extended visas, and medical insurance.

“Our business is down by more than 80%, and the recovery timeline is alarmingly unknown,” Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha said in a statement on the company’s website. “Our parent company, Uber, believes in our super-app vision and is committed to the region but, like others in the industry, is also impacted by the crisis.”

Uber’s online food ordering and delivery platform Uber Eats had also exited eight markets: Czech Republic, Honduras, Egypt, Romania, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Uruguay. It also transferred Uber Eats’ operations in the UAE to Careem.

In a separate filing, Uber said that the decision to pull Uber Eats out of those countries was “made as part of Uber’s ongoing strategy to be in first or second position in all Eats markets by leaning into investment in some countries while exiting others.”

Uber said that the discontinued and transferred markets represented just 1% of the business’ gross bookings and 4% of its adjusted losses in the first quarter of the year.