SINGAPORE-BASED ride-hailing firm Grab said it would be cutting about 360 jobs or 5% of its employees due to the “stark impact” of the coronavirus pandemic on its operations.
Grab Philippines confirmed its employees are affected by the retrenchment move.
“It is with heavy heart that I share with you today that we will be letting go about 360 Grabbers, or just under 5 percent of our employees,” Grab Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Anthony Tan said in his note to employees posted on Grab’s website on Tuesday.
He said the company had tried “everything possible” to avoid cutting jobs.
“The difficult cuts we are making today are required, because millions depend on us for a living in this new normal,” he noted.
“Since February, we have seen the stark impact of COVID-19 on businesses globally, ours included. At the same time, it has become clear that the pandemic will likely result in a prolonged recession and we have to prepare for what may be a long recovery period,” he said.
Grab Philippines is affected, Grab Public Relations Manager Arvi P. Lopez told reporters via Viber late Tuesday.
“However, please note that we cannot disclose how many impacted Grabbers are from the Philippines,” he added.
He also clarified that the affected Philippine-based employees are office-based, “not driver-partners.”
Mr. Tan said the company had reviewed over the past few months all costs, cut back on discretionary spending, and even “implemented pay cuts for senior management.”
“In spite of all these, we recognize that we still have to become leaner as an organization in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy,” he added.
At the weekend, Grab Philippines President Brian P. Cu said the rider demand for their GrabCar service had started to recover, with over 50,000 bookings made as of Saturday.
He said that in the first two weeks of the general enhanced community quarantine, Grab Philippines’ online drivers had received 10 to 12 trips per day.
The numbers were only around 15% of the average bookings made before the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Cu said. “But we are growing quickly week on week.”
The rider demand is expected to increase in the second phase of the quarantine, he added. — Arjay L. Balinbin
