Lido Learning, which counts Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Anupam Mittal, and Ronnie Screwvala among others as backers, is yet to pay salaries for the month of January to more than 1,200 employees who were asked to resign abruptly in the first week of February, sources aware of the matter told Moneycontrol.
Earlier this month, employees received a ‘full and final settlement’ letter from Lido Learning, which quoted the final amount payable to employees, and employees were asked to accept it with digital signatures. The letter dated May 6 had the signatures of Sahil Sheth, founder and chief executive of Lido Learning. However, employees have not received anything yet. Moneycontrol has seen copies of letters sent to at least four employees.
“The letter did not mention any date as to when we will get our salaries,” said an employee requesting anonymity.
“But we had to send it back to HR immediately with our signatures. The amount was correct but we haven’t received a single rupee yet. It has been almost four months and it’s just unfair for the company to not give our salaries for so long,” the employee added.
Another employee, who is yet to get a job since she had to resign from Lido in February, said she is struggling to meet her daily needs as she is the only earner in her family of five. The employee’s father is aged 63 and is down with a chronic disease, while she has two sisters and a brother who are still in college.
“I am not even expecting my sisters to find a job as in our area no one will give jobs to college-going girls,” said the ex-employee, who lives in a small town in West Bengal, requesting anonymity.
“But my brother who’s in class 12 has also started looking for a job, but you know how difficult it is to find a job. It is becoming very difficult for us day by day, and even more difficult for me to fund my father’s treatment,” the ex-employee added.
The ex-employee’s comments come at a time when inflation in India has skyrocketed since March.
Lido, founded in 2019 by ex-Byju’s vice president Sheth, had asked more than 1,200 employees to resign over a video call townhall conference in the first week of February, citing a funding crunch. He had told employees that the company was looking to wind down its operations due to a lack of funds and had thus asked them to tender their resignations as soon as possible. Sheth had also said that all the employees will be getting their salaries in under three months, and the company was looking to sell its assets to be able to fund employees’ salaries.
To be sure, Sheth’s comments on the funding crunch came just four months after the company had raised $10 million from Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. Interestingly, Lido’s website is still active and the company is accepting bookings.
Multiple calls to Sheth remained unanswered. A mail sent to him did not elicit an immediate response.
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