Here’s how much severance pay Twitter, Unacademy, Byju’s offered laid-off employees

The festive season has started on a bleak note for thousands across the world as several companies announced mass layoffs and a freeze on hiring. The most prominent among these was Twitter, which, under Elon Musk, laid off close to 3,700 employees. More than 90% of Twitter staff in India was fired as part of the global workforce reduction. Meanwhile, the much-talked-about funding winter worsened for India’s edtech sector, with both Byju’s and Unacademy announcing job cuts.

In this winter of layoffs, affected employees will get severance pay and exit packages that include health insurance and other benefits. Here are the details of the severance package that laid-off employees at Twitter, Byju’s, Unacademy and other companies will get:

Twitter

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk on Friday defended his decision to drastically reduce the workforce, claiming the company was losing $4 million a day. He added that impacted employees were given a generous severance package of three months.

"Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day," Musk tweeted. "Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required."

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

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Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

“Today is your last working day at the company, however, you will remain employed by Twitter and will receive compensation and benefits through your separation date of January 4, 2023,” read an excerpt of the email shared with employees last week, which was reviewed by CNBC.

Byju’s

On October 12, Byju’s announced that it was laying off 5% of its workforce – about 2,500 employees -- to avoid role duplication and reduce redundancies as the company focuses on profitability.

Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran addressed the backlash and the issue of exit package in a statement. “We have made available the best possible exit package to you which includes extended medical insurance coverage for you and your family members, outplacement services led by some of the industry’s finest recruitment specialists, fast-track full-and-final settlement, and a special provision to allow you to look for jobs while on our payroll,” he said.

Unacademy

Unacademy is the latest edtech firm to reduce its workforce. The SoftBank-backed company laid off 10 percent of its workforce or about 350 employees this week.

The laid-off employees will be getting severance pay equivalent of their notice periods and an additional two months' salaries, an accelerated one year vesting period, medical insurance coverage for an additional one year, and dedicated placement and career support, CEO Gaurav Munjal told employees in the email.

Stripe

Online payments giant Stripe also laid off 14% of its workers. Affected employees will be given at least 14 weeks of severance pay. Those who had a longer tenure with the company will be paid more, according to CEO Patrick Collison’s email, which was seen by CNBC.