Uber Egypt Lays off Hundreds of Employees

Uber Egypt laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday to ease the economic burden imposed by the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

Two former employees, who were laid off on Wednesday, in addition to an employee, who was able to keep his job, said that Uber had laid off about 40% of its office-based staff, equivalent to about 650 or 700 employees.

Employees statements to Reuters follow the company’s recent announcement that it intends to lay off approximately 3,700 full-time employees in its offices worldwide, equivalent to 17% of its workforce.

A company spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on the issue of layoffs in Egypt, noting that 46 countries in which the company is operates, is hardly hit by the crisis.

Uber markets in Egypt

Egypt is one of the largest Uber markets in the Middle East for participatory transportation services, and it is also one of the 10 largest markets for the US company in the world.

The company's platform sent a message to its customers early this week stating that the Uber Eats did not grow as expected, which prompted it to make the difficult decision to stop the service in Egypt starting May 18.

According to a text message the system will remain fully functional until this date, and payments for all requests will continue until the end of the day.

The Egyptian government has taken a number of precautionary measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, including imposing a night curfew and the closure of schools and mosques in Ramadan.

The ride-sharing company said in a message to its users earlier that its participatory transportation service will be suspended from 6 pm until 6 am daily, for a period of 14 days with the possibility of extension, depending on the upcoming situation.