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Uber lays off another 3000 employees in second time job-cuts

Uber Technologies said on Monday that it would cut an additional 3,000 jobs after laying off 3700 employees due to reduced income and slowed recovery.

CIOL Bureau

19 May 2020 08:13 IST

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Uber lays off another 3000 employees in second time job-cuts

Uber Technologies said on Monday that it would cut an additional 3,000 jobs. The first layoff was of 3700 employees. This comes out as coronavirus-led restrictions have reduced the demand for ride-hailing services.

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In an email, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that it will cut another 23% of its workforce to become profitable. For the future course, it will focus on ride-hailing and food delivery. While the company's first layoff of 3,700 employees was in customer support and recruiting teams, this one will be across departments. Further, it will also close 45 of its offices. Additionally, it will pay $145 million to employees via severance and other benefits, and up to $80 million to shut down offices. But on the flip side, the company will save around $1 million in costs.

Are Uber Drivers included?

Since uber is a cab-aggregator, drivers are not employees of the company. Therefore, they will not be included in the lay-off.

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The future course of Uber

The company will shut down major of its offices including Pier 70 office in San Francisco. This one was responsible to create experimental projects like self-driving cars. Over the next 12 months, it will begin the process of moving its Asia-Pacific headquarters out of Singapore to a new location "in a market where we operate our services," according to the company.

Dara said Uber must establish itself as a self-sustaining enterprise no longer in need of outside capital. He also called the company’s food delivery business Uber Eats the “next enormous growth opportunity.” So, the talks of the company to acquire GrubHub Inc may be true.

As part of the restructuring plans, it is also closing its startup incubator program and artificial intelligence research lab. It is also looking at strategic alternatives for Uber Works. It is a platform that it launched in October to help companies fill staffing gaps with temporary workers during situations of peak demand.