Urban Company Workers Protest Job Losses After Blocked IDs, 'Unrealistic' Rating Requirements

New Delhi: For Meena*, 39, Urban Company presented a unique opportunity to work as a freelance beautician in 2018.

She was told that there are no compulsions on time, she could accept as many jobs she liked on the app according to her convenience, and the costs appeared to be less than running her own salon.

A single mother to two children, Meena soon closed her salon in Ghaziabad and decided to focus solely on Urban Company.

Three months ago, Meena got into an accident and injured her hand when she was on the way to a client’s house during a bad storm.

“I already had four cancellations. I was going to the client’s house but I got into a bad accident and my scooty overturned and I injured my hand. I had to cancel the job and this became my fifth cancellation.”

Meena said that despite pleading with the company and showing her medical records to prove that she had an accident, her ID was blocked.

“There can be emergencies. What can we do? Now I am sitting at home for the past three months with no job. My 18-year-old son has had to take a part-time job to help with the household expenses as I don’t have an income anymore. I borrowed money and took out a loan to buy a new scooty after the accident and still have to pay Rs 1.20 lakh.”

Meena’s younger son is in the ninth standard and her elder son was to start college this year.

“I have been a dedicated worker. From 7 am the jobs start coming on the app. I worked from 7 am to 7 pm. My children have waited at home for me to come and give them food but I have committed myself to this job. How will I educate my children now?”

Meena is not the only Urban Company beautician to have her ID blocked in recent months.

Unfair mandates

Urban Company workers, referred to as “partners” by the company, that The Wire spoke to said that new rules accompanied by arbitrary blocking of IDs, unrealistic rating and response rate requirements, and an expanding hub radius for jobs have led them to lose their jobs.

On July 12, partners across Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad held a nationwide protest aided by the All India Gig Workers Union (AIGWU), which is affiliated with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

According to the AIGWU, while the Urban Company management was given prior notice about their arrival at the Gurugram headquarters to submit a memorandum on behalf of the agitating workers, the management refused to receive it.

Also read: It Can’t Be Business As Usual for the State, ‘Employers’ in the Case of Gig Workers

Subsequently, in an email sent to the company’s top management marking CEO Abhiraj Singh Bahl, AIGWU has sought the company’s immediate intervention to resolve the workers’ issues.

The email memorandum accessed by The Wire has demanded unblocking of the partners IDs, elimination of multiple rating systems, lowering the minimum rating threshold, fixing of the hub area radius where partners are expected to travel for jobs, stopping the blocking of IDs due to cancellations, removal of automatic product scanning and ordering, one day off work for partners along, a safety security net for partners and taking the consent of partners before bringing in new rules.

Partners told The Wire that the unfair mandates left them at the mercy of the company which is not ready to offer any redressal.

Partners said that new rules say that they are expected to maintain a rating of 4.7 to 4.9 out of 5, which is based on customer satisfaction. They are also required to keep an acceptance rate of 70-80% (against 40% earlier) of the total 100 jobs that come up on the app per month. Workers can only cancel five jobs.

Ameena*, 29, an Urban Company worker in Ahmedabad, said despite having a rating of 4.84, her ID was blocked last month after her acceptance rate dropped when she had to take leave for her father’s heart surgery.

“I could not work so I had to take leave and my acceptance rate dropped to 40%. In addition, the jobs that would come would be 15 km away – outside my hub radius. I could not go so far. I went to the office twice and told them about my father’s condition and why I had to take leave but they are still not ready to listen to me.”

“Customers can cancel even at the last minute, but if we cancel or take leave for genuine reasons, we get penalised,” she added.

Pooja*, 26, a partner in Pune said that her ID was blocked when her response rate dropped after she took leave when her grandmother was hospitalised in April. “I don’t have parents, my grandmother brought me up. How could I not take care of her when she was in the ICU?”

Pooja said that around the same time, she had an accident that left her injured and made it difficult for her to carry the spa beds that weigh between 25-27 kg.

“When I told them why I had to take leave because of my grandmother’s illness and then her death and my accident, they asked for my medical records. When I provided my medical records they asked me for my grandmother’s death certificate. I was promised that my ID will be unblocked but as I haven’t been able to procure my grandmother’s death certificate my ID remains blocked.”

Pooja said that despite multiple visits to the office requesting them to unblock her ID, she still remains blocked on the platform and has no means to earn an income.

Beauticians are also required to pay up to Rs 50,000 as an onboarding fee that includes a kit for products that need to be purchased from Urban Company itself along with training.

They are also required to keep purchasing products from the company which are sold at much higher prices than the market rates, and scan these products before starting a job.

No redressal

Monalisa Haldar, a partner in Kolkata, said that the products keep coming even if they don’t place an order and then they are required to pay for them.

“Products that we use as beauticians like pedicure tubs, waxing heating machines or even uniforms keep coming even if we don’t place orders. Every 3-6 months these products come directly to our house and the money is deducted from our accounts.”

Haldar, who is affiliated with CITU and has been a part of organising workers, said that her ID was blocked because she raised her voice against the company’s practices and helped other partners as well.

“Higher authorities have started blocking people like me who have raised their voice against the company. In meetings with representatives I had told them that new rules often come in English which partners cannot read so make them in Bengali or Hindi at least,” she said.

“During the pandemic in 2021 I visited a house where a person had died of Covid in the very room in which I gave my services. I raised this with the company that the partners are expected to check temperatures and disclose their Covid status and not the customers. After that I had to quarantine myself for 14 days and they called me and said that since you are not on the platform and many regular clients are looking for you, we are blocking your ID temporarily. But I have still not been unblocked,” she continued.

Haldar said she was prompted on the app to pay Rs 2,000 to get her ID unblocked. “I still have that screenshot,” she said.

Partners also said that they are being forced to sign up for the new MG plan upon payment of Rs 2,000 and failure to do so is resulting in fewer jobs. The MG plan or Minimum Guarantee Plan requires workers to pay a subscription fee starting from Rs 2,000 for a minimum number of jobs that will be provided to them along with a target for the month that varies across categories like Classic, Prime and Luxe for beauty services.

In 2021, The Wire reported that workers had protested against this subscription plan.

Shehnaz*, 35, a housewife who works as a partner in Ahmedabad, said that since she refused to sign up for the new MG plan, she has received only three jobs this month.

“I have a rating of 4.9. Yet I am getting barely 5-6 jobs every month since I refused to sign up for the new MG plan. Earlier I did up to 30 jobs a month,” she said.

With fewer jobs, Shehnaz said it is getting increasingly difficult to manage her household expenses as well as financing the education of her two school going children.

The Wire has written to Urban Company for a statement. This article will be updated if and when a response is received.

Need for government intervention

According to estimates by AIGWU, Urban Company employs more than 45,000 workers who work on the platform in 57 Indian cities.

The company also has offices in 17 Indian cities.

In 2019, the company signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and became a strategic partner for the Union government’s Skill India Mission.

“The government should bring a proper policy for the gig workers,” said Suman Das Mahapatra, Karnataka coordinator for the AlGWA.

“Though they are partners and are supposed to work according to their convenience, they should not be working more than 8-9 hours. They are working for more than 13-14 hours. So there needs to be a policy in place. In addition, there should be an employer-employee relationship so that they get legal protection in case of any kind of exploitation,” Mahapatra said.

“There should be proper vigilance and redressal authority who will listen to the partners’ grievances and bring the management and partners to the discussion table.”

Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), an independent organisation that is advocating to the government for legal reforms for gig workers, said that government intervention is essential. “Our focus is three-fold; job guarantee, social security, and finally there should be a law that should cover gig and platform workers. We are appealing to the governments to bring in legal changes.”

Also read: From Health and Harassment to Income Security and Loans, India’s Gig Workers Need Support

Salauddin has worked with the Rajasthan government and advocated for a law for gig workers.

In a first of its kind legislation, the Rajasthan government recently released the draft Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023 and invited public comments.

“Government intervention is essential because they (gig workers) are a key vote bank,” Salauddin said.

According to a NITI Ayog policy brief paper from June 2022 titled India’s Booming Gig and Economy Platform, an estimated that 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy in 2020-21.

The gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029-30, it added.

“Those political parties who are not thinking about gig workers they will not be able to go far. In upcoming elections, workers welfare should be made a poll plank because workers are raising their voice and they are demanding job guarantees and benefits,” Salauddin said.

“We are appealing to state governments hoping for change.”

He said that while the Union government notified the Social Security Code, 2020, it still has not been implemented. “It’s been three years, why isn’t it being implemented?”

“Since it is not happening at the central level yet, we are continuing our advocacy in states and even tier 1 and tier 2 cities to give rights to gig workers.”

*Names changed to protect workers’ identities.