The list of companies laying off employees due to economic distress caused by Covid-19 is getting bigger with each passing day. BookMyShow becomes the latest addition in the list post its announcement of laying off or furloughing 270 employees. The online ticket booking company claims that the decision has been taken due to the “unfavorable environment” persisting at the moment.
Ashish Hemrajani, Chief Executive of BookMyShow wrote an email to the company telling them about their decision of downsizing. “Today, we are at the stage where I have to share with you, the uncomfortable, unfortunate yet inevitable downsizing exercise that we have to take due to the unfavorable environment…” He wrote, “This includes those who will be put on furloughs, along with those who we will have to part ways with, at least, as of now,” he said.
The company has a workforce of about 1450 in India and across and with this development around 270 employees will be will be affected across various functions and teams. BookMyShow has not released the break up of employees laid off and put on furlough as of now.
The affected staff will be provided with two months of severance salary for two months irrespective of their tenure as per notice period, whichever is higher. They will also be provided medical insurance cover for themselves and nominated family members until September 30. The employees furloughed will continue to be associated with BookMyShow and will be eligible for medical insurance, gratuity and other benefits as stated in their contract.
The company reached a valuation of $800 million during its last funding round in 2018 and onboards investors like SAIF Partners, TPG Growth and Accel Partners. BookMyShow is one of the many well-funded consumer internet companies that have been downsizing on their workforce to survive the economic crisis. Ola, Oyo, Zomato, Swiggy, Udaan, Livspace, Sharechat are a few other firms that have followed the trend of laying off employees in past 2 months.