Uber Egypt Lays Off 40% of Staff

Ride-hailing giant Uber has laid off hundreds of employees in Egypt this week, as part of worldwide job cuts due the coronavirus outbreak. Former employees state that a total of 40% of staff was laid off out of a 650-700 total workforce.

The news comes after Uber has announced it has laid off 3,700 full-time jobs globally, amounting to around 14% of the company’s total workforce. In a statement, the company disclosed that the cuts are “in response to the economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the company’s business.”

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO also announced he'll waive his base salary for the rest of the year in the efforts to mitigate the losses incurred by the service being used significantly less during the outbreak. An Uber spokesperson detailed that 46 countries in total have been affected by the outbreak, Egypt being one of Uber’s top 10 markets globally

Earlier this week, Uber announced the shutdown of its food delivery platform Uber Eats in all Middle East markets, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while in the UAE the platform’s operations would transition to Uber’s Dubai-based subsidiary Careem.

Careem has also seen major job cuts this week, a reported 31% of the total workforce are being laid off. This affects more than 530 employees, who will receive at least three months’ severance pay, one month of equity vesting and, where relevant, extended visa and medical insurance through the end of the year, according to a blogpost by Careem.