Ola Will Not Lay Off 200 Employees, Informs Staff About Change in Plan: Report

Ola Lay Off Latest Update: Ride-hailing platform Ola on Friday decided to not lay off the 200 engineers as it was earlier planning to do so, according to an ET report. Earlier, there were reports that Ola was planning to lay off staff across software verticals of ANI technologies. The decision from the firm came on the heels of declining sales of Ola Electric scooters.Also Read – Uber, Ola Ask Drivers In India To Ensure Rear Seatbelts Accessible To Passengers In Cars: Report

The latest reports said the Ola employees have been informed about the change in the plan at a townhall meeting attended by the company’s senior tech leaders. First, Deccan Herald reported the company’s latest decision on the change in plans. Also Read – Ola’s First Electric Car Likely To Be Priced Between Rs 40-50 Lakh

Some media reports in July also claimed that though Ola was hiring for its electric mobility business, the urban mobility firm was also in the process of laying off about 1,000 employees. The restructuring process, expected to be on for a few weeks more, was to focus more on its electric mobility business, where it is hiring “aggressively”. Also Read – Hyderabad Consumer Court Orders Ola Cabs to Pay Rs 95,000 For Overcharging Rider

It must be noted that the restructuring process at Ola was going on across verticals including mobility, hyperlocal, fintech, and its used cars businesses.

In a statement, the company said, “Ola Electric, India’s largest EV company, has been increasing its focus on non-software engineering domains with a clear focus on building engineering and R&D capabilities across – vehicle, cell, battery, manufacturing and automation, autonomous engineering streams. The company currently has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months. In light of these efforts, the company is centralizing operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions.”

However, because of the financial stress, start-ups in India have been resorting to lay-offs to cut costs across verticals. Notably, edtech start-up Byju’s in July this year laid off over 600 employees, including both permanent and contractual.

Prior to Byju’s, new-generation enterprises including Vedantu, Unacademy and Cars24 have also have laid off over 5,000 employees in India this year.

Since January-March this year, Ola has laid off about 2,100 employees followed by Unacademy (over 600), Cars24 (600) and Vedantu (400).