Service marketplace Urban Company on Monday received and acknowledged demands put forth by protesting beauty segment partners and plans to respond via its legal team.
The company 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 document received by Urban Company and seen by YourStory, reads, “It appears that Urban Company is circumventing basic legal structures under the guise of technological platform.”
On June 10, Urban Company 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 associated with the Indian Federation Of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT), a pan-India umbrella organisation for all app-based gig and platform workers.
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Soon in @TGPWU @urbancompany_UC in Hyderabad 👇
Women gig and Platform workers strike down the biggest digital service platform in the tech city Bengaluru. Hundreds of women workers part of India's first women gig and Platform workers led digital service sector union –
1/4 pic.twitter.com/sZky2eZ0DT
— Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (@TGPWU) June 10, 2024
” data-type=”tweet” align=”center”>
Soon in @TGPWU @urbancompany_UC in Hyderabad 👇
Women gig and Platform workers strike down the biggest digital service platform in the tech city Bengaluru. Hundreds of women workers part of India’s first women gig and Platform workers led digital service sector union –
1/4 pic.twitter.com/sZky2eZ0DT
— Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (@TGPWU) June 10, 2024
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 on accepting the job based on location, order value, and even personal emergencies.
Partners have termed these terms of reference horrific, 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 north-eastern state of Assam reiterates, “If we don’t show up for the jobs, we are being arbitrarily terminated/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 grievances of gig workers.
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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.
Edited by Suman Singh
