Urban Company receives grievances sent by protesting partners in Bengaluru
Urban Company's partners are protesting the company’s ID-blocking methods, rating systems, and stringent cancellation policies, all of which could end up being a costly affair for gig workers.
Urban Company on Monday faced protests from partners in its beauty segment outside its Bengaluru office, settling only after a company representative received their demands.
The service marketplace has been under fire after facing recurring strikes from partners and gig workers associated with its platform regarding the company’s 'auto assign' features, ID blocking issues, and a costly grievance remedy.
The complaint filed by the protesting gig workers and seen by YourStory, reads, “It appears that Urban Company is circumventing basic legal structures under the guise of technological platform.”
On June 10, partners associated with its beauty segment that offers salon services gathered outside the company's Bengaluru headquarters in HSR Layout.
They represented the Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU)—a women's gig and platform workers-led digital service sector union—mainly representing the interests of Urban Company partners. GIPSWU is also affiliated with the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), a pan-India umbrella organisation for all app-based gig and platform workers.
According to the statement by GIPSWU, the protests are in response to the new terms of reference the platform has put in place. It includes the 'auto assign' feature, which doesn’t offer a choice to the partner to accept or reject a booking or 'job' based on location, order value, and even personal emergencies.
Partners have termed these terms of reference as detrimental, adding that the company is putting "thousands of partners to work under slavery-like situations” as they are penalised for not showing up for orders due to personal or family emergencies.
GIPSWU Leader Manisha from the north-eastern state of Assam reiterates, "If we don't show up for the jobs, we are being arbitrarily terminated or our work ID gets blocked."
At the time of publication, Urban Company did not respond to the queries sent by YourStory.
After the government scaled back the model code of conduct on account of the Lok Sabha elections, Urban Company has doubled down on its terms of condition, prompting a fresh wave of protests from its gig workers, Shaik Salauddin, Co-founder and National General Secretary of IFAT, told YourStory.
He outlined the union's plans to initiate protests in Telangana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Kolkata if there is no response from the platform.
The union is also approaching the government to set up a law to establish a Tripartite Welfare Board, which represents all the stakeholders, and is also asking for the labour department to register the grievances of gig workers.
In March, Urban Company disclosed that the average monthly net earnings of all UC service partners witnessed a 17% increase during the latter half of the calendar year 2023 (H2 CY2023) compared to the corresponding period in 2022.
Co-founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal in May announced that the company has turned profitable at the profit-before-tax level. In a post shared on LinkedIn, he clarified that its profitable Indian operations are now offsetting its overseas losses, making the consolidated business profitable at the PBT level.
(The story was updated for clarity.)
Edited by Suman Singh