Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Zomato to lay off 13% employees

- Suneera Tandon and Tarush Bhalla suneera.t@livemint.com

NEW DELHI: Online food delivery company Zomato on Friday said it is set to lay off 13% of its workforce as the covid-19 induced lockdowns have impacted the company’s food delivery business; the company will also initiate company-wide temporary pay cuts as it tries to preserve cash in an uncertain business environmen­t, Deepinder Goyal, the company’s founder and chief executive officer told employees in a note on Friday.

“Our business has been severely affected by the Covidlockd­owns. A large number of restaurant­s have already shut down permanentl­y, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I expect the number of resmarkets. taurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months,” Goyal said in his note that was later published on Zomato’s blog.

This, said Goyal, has severely impacted business at the aggregator that has also branched into delivery of groceries. As a result, “we do not foresee having enough work for all our employees,” he added. “We owe all our colleagues a challengin­g work environmen­t, but we won’t be able to offer that to 13% of our workforce going forward,” he told employees in an email on Friday morning.

To be sure Zomato has over 4,000 employees the world over. It has presence in several overseas

THE COMPANY ALSO ANNOUNCED PAY CUTS FOR ALL TEMPORARIL­Y

Zomato had sought voluntary pay cuts at the onset of the nationwide lockdown.

However, the company is now initiating temporary pay cuts across the organisati­on as it continues to be short of its salary reduction target.

“Starting June, I am proposing a temporary reduction in pay for the entire organisati­on. Lower cuts are being proposed for people with lower salaries, and higher cuts (up to 50%) for people with higher salaries,” Goyal said.

“If you have already taken a voluntary cut equal to or more than the proposed temporary reduction in pay, you will not be expected to take an additional cut. This temporary reduction in pay will also be eligible for 2x ESOP grants just like the earlier voluntary cuts,” he said.

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