Coronavirus impact: WeWork India to lay off 20% of its workforce

Co-working major WeWork India, owned by realty firm Embassy Group, will lay off around 20 per cent of its total 500 employees with effect from June to cut its operational costs after its business hit by the coronavirus outbreak, sources said. Karan Virwani, the CEO of WeWork India, informed this decision through internal communication to company employees. Around 100 workers would be affected by the decision, sources said.

According to sources, WeWork India will honour the notice period and also offer severance packages to its employees. The company will continue medical insurance until the end of this year and also offer its coworking centres free of cost. "We have optimised and planned our team strength based on the core business, as we continue to execute our long term business strategy in India and aim to be profitable by early 2021. We have realigned certain functions and teams to reflect our business priorities and a member-centric approach.

"While decisions that impact our people are some of the hardest to make, we believe that this step is required to build an effective and sustainable structure that supports the company and our members in the long term," Virwani said in a statement. WeWork India has over 57,000 desks in 34 locations across NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. The seats are available in the range of Rs 5,000-40,000 per desk per month.

Bengaluru-based Embassy Group, a major player in Indian commercial real estate that launched India's first REIT, had partnered US-based WeWork in 2016 to enter into co-working business. The coworking segment, which grew at a rapid pace in India in the last few years, has been badly impacted because of lockdown to control coronavirus disease.

Coworking players take office space on lease from real estate developers and other landlords and then subleases that to corporates, freelancers and startups.

Also read: WeWork co-founder sues SoftBank over failed $3 billion tender offer

Also read: Alibaba founder Jack Ma resigns from SoftBank board