Health and fitness startup Curefit has undertaken a second round of layoffs and furloughs, impacting hundreds of employees. The second round comes two months after it laid off over 700 workers in May as per media reports.

As per the report, a former employee told ET that since the last few days, the startup has furloughed and laid off around 600 employees. 70-80% of the 600 are being furloughed and will be brought back as gyms open up. This has also impacted its verticals including Eat.Fit, Cultfit, and Curefit. 

The startup had anticipated gyms to open up by July but on account of the continued shutdown, further job cuts and furloughs have been implemented. The laid-off staff will be paid for their notice period and along with it they will be handed out anywhere between 15 days to three-months of severance depending on their role.

In an internal email on July 15, Mukesh Bansal, Co-founder, Curefit, appreciated the efforts of the staff for making it a ‘digital-first company’. “We have had a very tumultuous last 4 months, with most teams scrambling almost on a daily basis with frequent changes, shifting priorities, various cost-cutting measures, and continued uncertainty around the pandemic,” Bansal told employees. “I think as a team we did the best we can and the agility/hustle that was shown by many teams is absolutely incredible and is the reason that we are now able to operate like a digital-first company,” he said.

The downsizing comes at a time as the fitness startup anticipates its operations to take more than a year to recover due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has yet to allow for the reopening of gyms, dealing a severe blow to the industry.

In May, along with the layoffs, the company had also implemented salary cuts across levels. The founders had taken a 100% pay cut, the management team 50% and the rest of the staff depending on seniority took a pay cut of 20 to 30%. In addition to closing down some of its fitness centers in India and UAE, the company had also shut down a number of its EatFit cloud kitchen outlets. With no clarity on when gyms will be allowed to open, the startup faces a tough year ahead.