“As you all know, this situation of COVID-19 comes at a very unique time for OYO. This is right after we had a sizeable restructuring of our company in January of this year. Due to that, I want to clarify for all of you that we intend to do no or negligible layoffs as a part of cost restructuring across the world,” Agarwal said. He added that it is important that the OYO’s leadership team ensures that the right decisions are made for the long-term success along with decisions on what is right for the long-term cash runway for the company. “Given that, a significant number of ‘OYOpreneurs’, across the world are being placed on temporary leaves or furloughs of a minimum of 60 to 90 days and the details of these will be made available from HR teams of your respective countries,” he said.

OYO, however, would continue all the benefits of healthcare and medicare for the impacted ‘OYOpreneurs’ on leaves or furloughs, he added. He also informed that 10 of the company’s employees, ‘OYOpreneurs’, have been tested positive with the Coronavirus, and a few of them have already recovered, in China, Brazil in Latin America, and others. Noting the severe economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, he said that there is no other sector as badly impacted as the travel, tourism and hospitality.