Coronavirus has major implications for global economy. The resulting COVID19 lockdown has resulted in millions of job losses across the globe. In US alone, more than 10 million people have lost their jobs till date as estimated by JPMorgan.
Pakistan is not much different when it comes to jobs losses but we cannot estimate the magnitude of problem due to lack of reliable data. Some of the companies where job losses or salary cuts have been reported in our local media are compiled by PakistanImage. Let us know if you are aware of any other companies so we can update the list.
KeepTruckin
KeepTruckin, a San Francisco based company has fired approximately 350 employees in its Pakistan offices located in Lahore and Islamabad. We saw multiple threads on Linkedin confirming this layoff exercise apparently due to the global slowdown in its business resulting from Corona.
Not only this, the media reports also pointed towards salary reduction for the remaining work force whose salary is in excess of 50,000 USD per year. The approximate reduction is 10%. CEO Shoaib Makani has decided not to take any salary till the Coronavirus related crises is over.
Cubix – Karachi Based Software Company has terminated services of approximately 50 employees as per reports in media. However, the same was refuted by the official announcement that Cubix shared on its website. Check the key points below:
- A temporary reduction in salary for the majority of employees for three months, ranging from 15% to 50%. Junior-level employees are exempted from salary reduction.
- When the situation settles, employees will receive the total amount deducted and the management will make a payment plan for it.
- We are postponing or canceling other expenditures to allocate the necessary resources to our employees.
- The CEO of Cubix will take a 100% salary cut for three months.
The CEO of CUBIX, Salman Lakhani gave the following brief on the issue:
“We chose to implement temporary salary reductions, so we don’t have to downsize. We don’t want to layoff our employees. But survival requires tough decisions. We are reducing salaries to retain our talent. We promise to resume business as usual as soon as the crisis settles’
NETSOL
NetSol Technologies, a NASDAQ listed software company has decided to layoff several employees. Beside the layoffs, company has also decided 20-30% reduction in the salaries of its remaining employees. The company said the following in an internal e mail send to its employees and reported in Pakistan media:
“In order for the company to stay relevant, the management has decided to reduce the company’s expenses, effective from 1st of April, 2020. It will be implementing a pay cut on employees making more than Rs150,000. A very limited number of resources making less than Rs150,000 might get a salary cut as well,
Hashoo Group Pakistan
Hashoo Group, the owners of Pearl Continental and Marriott hotels in Pakistan has announced cut in the salaries of its top executives to ensure it doesn’t layoff any employee. Hashoo Group Hospitality Division Chief Operating Officer Haseeb Gardezi said in a statement.
Keeping in view the current scenario, the management of Hashoo Group has decided that all the associates in the group shall be paid normally this month and in line with the government directives throughout the lockdown period. The senior executive team at the corporate office has volunteered to take significant salary cuts to aid the business in this hour of need. Furthermore, work-from-home policy has also been approved to facilitate associates who are working remotely. (The) group has implemented the closure of most hotels and has postponed all non-essential projects. In these troubled times, the group is ensuring practicality of having a disaster preparedness and business continuity plan by ensuring safety and mitigating risks to employees as much as possible
TPS Pakistan
As per media reports, TPS Pakistan implemented across the board pay cut to ensure it doesn’t lay off its employees.
Zameen.com & Northbay Solutions
Zameen.com has announced to reduce its employees salary by 10% while Lahore based Northbay has cut the salaries by 25%
Others
There are other companies like Careem, BYKEA etc where tens of thousands of its employees are out of work. Since they operate on commissions, hence there are not official layoffs. However, effectively 30,000+ employees of BYKEA and 60,000 plus employees of CAREEM in Pakistan are out of work.
Call centers business is also serious impacted as people cannot work from home and hence their jobs are also at stake. Many other sectors e.g. hawkers, barbers, construction related, salesman in retail stores of non essential items are also facing job losses due to the lockdown. PM Imran Khan rightly pointed out that complete lockdown will make matters worse for such people. Lockdown has to be curtailed in a controlled manner to ensure the wheels of economy starts moving and jobs are created.
