COVID-19: Treebo Hotels offers paid VRS for employees; founders take 60 pc pay cut

Budget hospitality chain Treebo Hotels has launched a paid voluntary resignation scheme (PVRS) for its employees under which they will be offered a month's salary apart from continuation of their insurance cover even after the end of the employment.

The company has decided to take these steps as it looks at uncertain times due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides, the founders of the company have also taken a 60 per cent pay cut and top management has also taken 40 per cent pay cut.

"We've seen the COVID-19 pandemic radically and quickly transform our lives, the world, and our business in less than a month. Vast majority of our hotels are on stop-sell, all demand channels have dried up, revenue has nearly disappeared, and cash reserves are running low," the company said in an email to its employees.

While the company continues to look for ways to improve its financial situation, it cannot say with certainty what the future would look like. In such a scenario, the company is keen to safeguard the interests of people right away should the situation worsen later on, and significantly reduce the cost base of the company to allow continuity, it added.

"We are obviously badly impacted industry. We have just rolled out paid voluntary resignation scheme for our employees where we have told them that the company is in a difficult situation right now, both in terms of business as well as the financial situation of the company," Treebo Hotels co-founder Sidharth Gupta told PTI.

The company wants to act proactively to help the employees secure their financial interests, he added.

"The scheme is open to all employees. We are not selectively offering it to some and not to others or vice versa. We are hoping that people will exercise their judgement and will opt for the scheme, which will help us secure their financial interests by paying them some liquidity in advance and we can also start finding other opportunities for them, as part of an outplacement effort," Gupta said.

It will also reduce some cost burden on the company. We at present have around 400 employees.

When asked if the company is also planning for lay offs, Gupta said: "There are no lay offs. It is a completely voluntary scheme open to all employees. We are not terminating anyone. If people today say I am not opting in for the scheme, it is fine. He will remain on the rolls".

The company has put a group of senior leaders who are working on finding alternate employment opportunities for all those who chose this PVR Scheme, Treebo Hotels said.

Should this situation get better in the near future, the company will be reaching out to those employees who have opted for this scheme to see if there are opportunities for it to work with them again, it added.