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Journalism of Courage
The food delivery start up TinyOwl’s departure from Pune was marked by high drama which sources in the company said has “traumatised” one of the co-founders Gaurav Choudhary, who had to stay put in the Pune office for at least 48 hours as discussions and talks with retrenched employees had remained unresolved.
Founded by five IITians, TinyOwl started its Pune operations in February 2015 with 25 employees. Other than marketing, the Pune operations looked after business development and MIC, with majority of the employees being management professionals. Funded by Sequina, Matrix Capital and Nexus Venture partners, TinyOwl was considered to be a strong player in the food delivery space. Trouble started brewing for the company this year due to fund crunches which led to lay offs in multiple cities.
An employee of the company speaking on the condition of anonymity said they were asked to assemble in the office Wednesday as Choudhary wanted to discuss their future plans. “When we assembled there, we were told the company was closing down its Pune operations as it had failed to raise funds,” said the employee. As per the employees, Choudhary had stated that the full and final clearance of the employees would be calculated and they would be paid through post-dated cheques. However, when employees went to collect the cheque, they claimed it was lesser than the amount that was legally due to them.
Disgruntled employees then started a sit-in in the office, with Choudhary saying he would also stay with the employees to resolve the matter. Sources said they had accompanied Choudhary for dinner also. They claimed that on Thursday Choudhary had asked them to resign assuring that their salary would be credited to the bank accounts. “A few months ago the company had fired some employees and their final clearance had taken a lot of time. We wanted our dues to be cleared immediately as we did not want to suffer the same fate,” said another employee. At least 10 employees had tendered their resignation but others refrained when it was seen that their dues were not credited. In the altercation that followed, voices were raised and ultimately the police was called by Choudhary. The matter was finally resolved with the company clearing the dues of the employee late Thursday night.
While sources claimed that Choudhary was not held “hostage” or against his wish, sources in the Mumbai-based headquarters of the company stated the situation had started to deteriorate.
“Since his return from Pune he has not been able to talk properly and has been given sedatives. He is undergoing counselling and would be talking to the media after that,” he said.Harshvardhan Mandad, co-founder and ,CEO TinyOwl, in an email response acknowledged that two of their employees were made to stay back in office for over 48 hours.
“We have been able to resolve this and have immediately started working on considering the demands beyond the terms of employment, placed forward by other employees from other cities. We request you to please give us some time to first address our employees’ concerns. Post that we will be more than happy to answer any queries you may have,” the mail read.
