As the country continues to go into another Coronavirus-induced lockdown until May 3, 2020, a new problem has begun in India. Many companies, to ensure the survival of itself are laying off employees by the hundreds. As businesses continue to remain shut for the third consecutive week in India, more and more people are being asked to leave their jobs or stay on leave-without-pay. Affected employees from many such companies have been taking to social media to ask the government for help.
As per a report based on the National Sample Survey (NSS), over 136 million jobs globally are at immediate risk of being terminated. Further, according to reports, most of these terminations are coming from tech-based startups and bootstrapped companies. The risk is the highest with mid-level companies that function with 200-500 employees.
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Interestingly, companies that are aged between 5 and 15 years have a higher risk than others, including new startups less than a year old. The reason is that organizations of this level have also been likely hiring at a larger scale to look for faster growth.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently said that the government should intervene. It suggested providing stimulus packages that will support enterprises including MSMEs to avert mass-scale closure and job sackings. Further, the FICCI even said that “India cannot afford a prolonged state of lockdown”. It urged the government to come up with a calibrated ‘exit strategy’ after the lockdown. This would aim towards bringing balance between normalizing the economy and containing the Coronavirus disease.
Career vs COVID-19 by BigJobs is an ongoing community-sourced platform tracking such companies. These include companies that have laid off employees or imposed salary cuts. Moreover, it even includes brands that have stopped hiring or have revoked offers.
Popular Indian companies hit by Coronavirus
Such companies in India include big names like Flipkart, Swiggy, and Reliance Jio. Moreover, layoffs and salary cuts have affected employees in many tech companies. These include Oyo, HealthifyMe, Treebo, Ninjacart, Curefit, Drivezy, Goibibo, Drivezy, and Instamojo. Similar circumstances have also hit brands like Shuttl, TripActions, Meesho, Vogo, Koovs, Holidayme, Fareportal, Capillary, TravelTriangle, Hopscotch, Cleartrip, RentoMojo, Quikr, Droom, and UpGrad.
