San Francisco: Ride-hailing app Uber has laid off nearly 3,700 employees or about 14 per cent of its workforce via multiple Zoom calls and each call lasted less than three-minutes, with a common message: “Today will be your last working day with Uber”.

Last week, Uber Technologies announced to lay off some 3,700 full-time employees, in a move to reduce operating expenses in response to the economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the company`s business.

In video footage obtained by Daily Mail, a company manager said: “Today will be your last working day with Uber,” as he informed some of the axed customer-support employees.

“Right now, the rides business is down by more than half due to COVID-19. The difficult and unfortunate reality is there is not enough work for many front-line customer-support employees,” Ruffin Chaveleau, head of Uber`s Phoenix Center of Excellence, told the employees.

In a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Uber said due to lower trip volumes in its rides segment and the company`s current hiring freeze, it is reducing its customer support and recruiting teams by approximately 3,700 full-time employee roles.

“With the reality of our rides trips volumes being down significantly, our need for communication operations as well as in-person support is down substantially. And with our hiring freeze, there simply isn`t enough work for recruiters,” the company`s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a letter to staff.

Khosrowshahi also reached an agreement with Uber`s Board of Directors, effective May 2, to waive his base salary for the remainder of the year ending December 31, 2020.

An Uber spokesperson told FOX Business this week: “It`s never easy or uncomplicated to let employees go, and that`s only been more true during this unprecedented period, where we are all working from home across dozens of cities and countries”.

“We`ve focused on providing the clearest, most empathetic experience, possible and have put together a strong severance package and other benefits.”

The ride-hailing major Uber reported a net loss of $2.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, even as its revenue reached $3.54 billion in Q1 2020 from $3.1 billion a year ago, a growth of 14 per cent.

In Q1 2019, Uber`s net loss was $1 billion, which includes $11 million in stock-based compensation expense.

Uber also announced it is folding its JUMP e-bike and e-scooter business into Lime.

“Our customers will continue to have access to e-bikes and e-scooters in our apps. As part of the transaction, we made an additional convertible note investment of $85 million in Lime,” Uber said