It's not odd, that's pretty standard practice in dire situations like this. The company doesn't have the money to pay your wife or her colleagues, and since the

It's not odd, that's pretty standard practice in dire situations like this. The company doesn't have the money to pay your wife or her colleagues, and since the government hasn't done anything special (yet) to help out businesses the only way they can guarantee she gets a portion of her salary is through layoffs. If they furloughed your wife instead, she would not get paid anything by anyone until the government decides what the relief effort looks like.