Travel startup Treebo Hotels asks employees to voluntarily resign, founders take 60 pc pay cut

surbhiApril 7, 2020

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Amid declining travel and hotel bookings due to the coronavirus outbreak, online hotel bookings startup Treebo has asked its employees to opt for voluntary resignations. This will be treated under the paid voluntary resignation scheme (PVRS), which the company rolled out on Monday following a town hall led by co-founders Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary, and Kadam Jeet Jain.

As part of this, members of staff opting for this scheme will be able to resign from their role at the company, get their notice period waived off, and get one-month salary, subject to a minimum of Rs 30,000/- pre-tax in advance, along with the five days worked till date.

“Given the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and its impact on the travel industry, Treebo has launched a paid voluntary resignation scheme to reduce our fixed cost structure and to provide the right opportunities for our highly valued colleagues. Some of our colleagues have signed up for this and we are finding outplacement opportunities for them currently. These are exceptional individuals with skill-sets across sales/business development, operations, sales operations, HR, finance,” Co-founder Rahul shared via LinkedIn.

As Sidharth chimed in, “Proud of the team we built at Treebo and pained to see some of them go. But the situation is what it is, and we are taking this one on the chin. Finding exciting and meaningful opportunities for our people who have opted for this paid voluntary resignation scheme will be our number one priority in the coming few days.”
In addition to the PVRS, the founders are reported to be taking a 60 percent salary cut while its senior management takes a 40 percent salary cut. Treebo has also spoken to its insurance company to extend the insurance cover to its staff even after the end of their employment with the company.

In an email sent out to all the employees by the HR department on Monday – which has been accessed by YourStory – the startup informed its employees that the vast majority of its hotels are on stop-sell at the moment, all demand channels have dried up, revenue has nearly disappeared, and cash reserves are running low.

Even as the company looks for ways to improve its current financial situation, it is weighing in all measures to help its staff. One of which involves putting together a group of senior leaders to find alternate employment opportunities for all those who choose to opt for the PVR Scheme.
However, those opting for the scheme will need to revert to HR by April 8 latest. In case the company exceeds its budget, it will be processing applications on a first come first served basis, according to the founders.

Source: Yourstory