ixigo reinstates salaries, grants discounted ESOP to employees

India's leading travel firm ixigo on Thursday said it has reinstated salaries and granted discounted employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) to all its employees to compensate for the paycuts made during the past three months. The ESOPs will result in an additional 2.3 per cent of the company's overall shareholding being given to all 150 ixigems (ixigo employees), it said in a statement.

Earlier this year, in March, with the coronavirus-induced lockdown coming into effect and the subsequent travel ban, the travel sector was one of the hardest hit. During the period, ixigo announced graded paycuts across the team. ixigo co-founders forwent their entire salary and the leadership team took over 60 per cent paycut graded by salary.

The rest of the company mutually agreed to a 20-50 per cent paycut depending upon compensation brackets. As of Wednesday, ixigo has reverted salaries of all its employees and has re-initiated hiring for technology and customer experience roles. ixigo is the only major online travel agent in India that has not laid off any employee during the crisis, it said.

"We are well prepared for the next 12 months road to recovery. We expect to get back to 50 per cent of our pre-COVID-19 revenue level by the end of 2020," ixigo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Aloke Bajpai said..

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