Even Food Delivery Companies Aren’t Doing Well: Deliveroo Allegedly Cut 25% of Singapore Staff

2020-05-01 , 11:26 am

You’d have thought that food delivery services and grocery stores are thriving amidst the Covid-19 outbreak.

After all, Sheng Siong just gave all of its employees a one-month bonus because their profits jumped by almost 50%.

Turns Out, Food Delivery Services Might Not Be Doing As Well As You’ve Thought

Yesterday, Grab slashed its managers’ pay by 20% and ask for their drivers to go on voluntary no-pay leave.

And should the circuit breaker be extended once again after 1 June 2020, they might not even be able to provide “extra financial support”.

Reader Bao: But that’s because their PHV operations are hit hard by CB. That’s not food.

True, but today, another food delivery service hits the internet headlines:

According to a report on Business Times, Deliveroo is reportedly letting go of a quarter of its staff in Singapore.

Singapore has 80 staff and 20 of them will be shown to the door. But it’s not just Singapore.

The cuts are made as part of a global cut and in total, more than 300 staff across several countries will be affected.

Some staff will also be put on unpaid leave.

So what happens to the staff who gets laid off?

Well, what Deliveroo is giving to them as compensation for the layoff is seemingly substantial.

For a start, they’ll have a minimum of 12 weeks’ salary as severance pay, inclusive of the notice period.

The company is also actively trying to help laid-off employees to look for jobs or even alternative roles within the company.

The company was going through a restructuring even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Deliveroo’s general manager, Siddharth Shanker, has left the company although the company denies that it has anything to do with Covid-19.

He left to follow new opportunities, a spokesperson confirmed.

It was added that the food delivery firm has been undergoing restructuring since Nov 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic occurred.

There were changes to the performance marketing function which resulted in some job cuts.

The head of marketing performance for the APAC region and the Middle East was laid off as well.

If you’re someone who has lost your job, placed on unpaid leave or has a pay cut, there’s help for you.

The Singapore government has recently expanded the scope of its Covid-19 Support Grant to help more individuals.

Basically, it’ll help to support three types of employees now:

Help will be rendered in the form of a monthly payout and, for those who are unemployed, given help to look for a new job.

You can find out more here.