Food delivery company Swiggy said on Monday, May 18, said that it will lay off 1,100 employees over the next few days due to the COVID-19 crisis clouding its kitchen business.

‘Today is one of the saddest days for Swiggy as we have to go through an unfortunate downsizing exercise,’ Swiggy co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Majety wrote in an email to the company’s employees on May 18.

He further said that the kitchen facilities are being shut temporarily or permanently since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.

‘We unfortunately have to part ways with 1,100 of our employees spanning across grades and functions in the cities and head office over the next few days,’ NDTV quoted him as saying.

The CEO said that the impacted employees will be contacted by the HR team over the next few days.

All impacted employees will get at least three months salary, as well as one month salary for each year of employment with the company, which will be over and above the notice-period pay.

‘While Covid (COVID-19) might have long-term tailwinds for the delivery business and digital commerce when things settle eventually, nobody knows how long the uncertainty will last,’ Swiggy CEO said in the communication to staff.

Swiggy’s employee stock ownership policy has now been extended to the nearest quarter.

The company needs to reduce costs in order to ‘withstand any further risks’ from the COVID-19 uncertainty, Majety claimed.

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