Afrigather Copia layoffs will increase questions concerning the firm’s future two weeks after it entered into administration.
Two weeks after an inside memo confirmed that the B2C e-commerce platform was struggling to make payroll, Copia Global has laid off no less than 1,060 workers, suggesting the corporate could also be getting ready to a shutdown or massively scaling again operations.
In a 20-minute assembly with employees on Thursday, Copia CEO Tim Metal and directors appointed final week to take over the corporate requested workers to return firm property, together with laptops and tablets, and signal their termination letters on Friday, June seventh.
CEO Tim Metal declined to remark however promised to share new info on Friday.
Though Copia has agreed to pay a one-month wage and different advantages like accrued unpaid go away days by Kenyan labour legal guidelines, directors haven’t but specified a timeframe for these funds.
This lack of readability has precipitated concern amongst workers, contemplating the current delay in Could salaries, which had been solely paid this week. Two workers informed TechCabal they might not signal their termination letters till Copia clarifies the fee schedule for his or her compensation and advantages.
An ex-employee claimed Copia began dealing with enterprise difficulties in 2022. The monetary constraints pressured the corporate to cut back operations, together with exiting Uganda barely two years after launching and shedding 700 workers.
On Tuesday, Copia stopped taking orders from six key places in Kenya, together with Embu and Eldoret, more likely to minimize its already squeezed expenditure. It had requested workers working within the affected markets to take go away. At its peak, Copia had a 50,000-agent community serving rural Kenya.
On Could 16, in a leaked inside memo, Copia warned employees that the corporate may both fold up or restructure its enterprise by shedding 1060 workers.
