TinyOwl co-founder taken hostage by employees over layoffs, finally released, now headed to Mumbai

TinyOwl, a Mumbai-based food ordering app platform was in downscaling its operations from a few cities in order to sustain their growth. The firm was laying off a bunch of its employees with a second round of layoffs recently. The company shut down operations in four cities, laying off around 112 employees.

Employees who were affected by the company’s decision have taken the law in their own hands by holding hostage the co-founder Gaurav Choudhary. Employees stated that they need a confirmation on their full and final settlements.

Medianama reported that TinyOwl’s co-founder, 24-year-old Choudhary, was being held hostage at the company’s office in Pune by the employees who were laid off. He was not allowed to leave the premises for more than 36 hours. The police were called and the employees showed no concern even though the police were walking in and out of the premises.

The employees were gathered inside the office, writing on the whiteboards and taking printouts, showing anger and discussing the developments.

‘They say the F&F (Full and Final settlement) will be sent within 45 days, but how do we trust them when they haven’t paid old employees?,’ one employee told Medianama, adding, ‘We have a mail from the HR saying that F&Fs won’t always get settled within 45 days.’

The report added that some of the employees who were present at the Pune office were from the previous round of layoffs that happened on August 31, 2015.

Update: Finally, Medianama reported that Choudhary was allowed to leave the Pune office after a few settlements. The 24-year-old co-founder was bothered about his security since the employees were pretty upset about the entire layoffs and issues regarding non payment of salaries. He is finally on his way to Mumbai, where things would be finalised. The police and local politicians were present at the Pune office during the entire drama.

In an official statement to the media, Harshvardhan Mandad – CoFounder & CEO said, “We have had a long day in resolving a critical situation in Pune wherein two of our employees had been 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." more updates will follow.