Bengaluru: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked industry leaders to be compassionate and not fire people during the lockdown, several employees from the e-commerce company- Udaan were laid off on April 24. The contractual employees are now awaiting rehire or compensation from the company.
"I joined on May 15. On Friday morning I saw an email from the HR saying, my employment is terminated due to business challenges. There was no buffer period or notice period and I hope us speaking is of some good use," said Chiranjan M, a former employee.
Expressing grief, another female employee said, "Without notice period, they have terminated us. I live really far away from home and ahead of lockdown, they asked us to stay here, that they will take care of us. Now we don't have money, we can't pay rent, we can't go home. What do we do in such a situation? How do we pay rent for the next 2-3 months? How do we find another job?."
In response to the layoffs, the company said it was compelled to restructure their teams and this has made some roles redundant.
"Each associate who has been impacted is provided with additional compensation of one month and will be part of the priority hiring list where they would be given preference to join us when a relevant opportunity exists within the system. 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 the group medical insurance scheme will continue to get medical insurance benefit for an additional period of 3 months," said the statement from the company.
Those terminated are contract workers and were on the payroll of the several consultancy firms. Udaan has not clarified yet on how many in total have been laid off and if permanent employees too were given pink slips.
"In the specific instance, we have followed all necessary provisions of the law and adhered to the advisories of labour officials ensuring there is no cessation of employment during the lockdown and all statutory dues have been/are being paid and statutory deduction have been remitted to their social security accounts to ensure they can make use of the benefits. We are also extending the option of online skill upgradation as well as redeployment options to candidates in distress based on the available openings during the COVID lockdown scenario," said the statement from Teamlease, one of the consultancy firms.
Defying the company's claim, a former employee named- Ajith said "We were working from home until April 24. They haven't paid us anything now. They said they would pay us salary for 15 days notice period and an additional 15 days but that is after the lockdown once we submit their assets.”
However, a group of employees who were terminated gave a petition at the Bellandur police station and it was forwarded to the labour department which has said it is looking into the issue. Udaan was last valued at nearly $3 billion after raising $585 million in October from investors such as Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Citi Ventures, DST Global, Lightspeed etc., according to CNBC TV18.
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