Bengaluru: As many as 150 individuals across the country lost their jobs with Treebo group of hotels in the company’s ‘downsizing’ bid. Thick clouds of uncertainty loom large over these personnel who were placed in the company as Treebo Property Managers (TPM), Quality Managers, Business Development and Human Resources, the TPMs being the most affected.
While the company claims that it is only a trimming exercise, many say that the problem started only when Treebo tried to shift the burden of salaries of the employees onto the clients (property owners). Meanwhile, company sources say that an online travel agency major dropped Treebo in favour of their close contender, resulting in the layoffs.
One of the affected former employees on conditions of anonymity told Newskarnataka that though he was hired as a property manager, he was recently asked to take up a role as a sales executive. “I was arm twisted. If I did not accept the offer, the only option was to resign and take home a month’s salary. I went with the second option,” he said, adding that the decision was easier as he had no commitments to fulfil but, many of his colleagues are in a dilemma because they have families to take care of.
Evidently, the company is following a pattern of offering ‘sales’ roles to heads that are set to roll.
Yet another former employee said that so far, the Bengaluru headquartered Treebo has not explained why the employees were being laid off. “We are clueless. We are only banking on hearsay. While some say it is the row over the pay, some say that the company had invested on technology that makes it very lean and efficient and hence they do not need the manpower. We do not know what to believe,” he expressed, and added that the company is desperately forcing them to take up sales roles which most of them are not comfortable doing.
Many affected persons opined that Treebo’s apparent financial instability can be caused by the fact that they sometimes tie-up with underperforming properties.
NewsKarnataka contacted one of the property owners (Treebo franchisee) regarding the terms of payment of the employees. Under conditions of anonymity, he informed that under the old contract, they were asked to pay about 70 percent of the property manager’s salary, even though they were technically employees of Treebo. “Our contract with Treebo is renewed once every eleven months. During the very recent renewal, they (Treebo) told us that if we wanted a property manager we could retain them but, we would have to pay their entire salary. So we decided that we did not require one as we have a lot of expenses already. More than a hundred property managers were just sacked,” he explained, adding that under the renewed contract, Treebo was only going to handle online and offline sales for the properties, while the property owners would take care of management and administration.
Meanwhile, a Treebo spokesperson in a statement clarified that the company has taken a critical look at the payroll and other costs, and rationalised them in line with the company’s future plans.
The statement further reads: “We have asked ~80 of our colleagues to leave, which represents less than 10% of our total workforce. This is very much in line with our long-standing approach of building not just a fast-paced but a sustainable business as well. We are progressing continually, which for us is always a combination of growth and sustainability. It is unfortunate that our commitment towards the economic health of the larger organisation has translated into us parting ways with some of our valued colleagues. We have tried our level best to offer them a smooth exit through such things like an appropriate severance package, accelerated vesting of ESOPs for colleagues nearing vesting milestones, and assistance in finding the next opportunity”.
