Women Gig Workers go on Strike at UrbanCompany

By: WE Staff | Monday, 11 October 2021

A group of female gig workers have gone on strike on account of UrbanCompany allegedly paying ‘low wages’ among other allegations. A group of female gig workers including beauticians and salon experts have gone on strike on account of exploitation and unfair work practices.

The group has refused to take new customer orders protesting against ‘high commissions’ charged by the marketplace along with poor safety working conditions such as late night shifts.

Several beauty partners took to social media to share their experiences by way of videos and tweets over the weekend.

In response, newly minted Unicorn UrbanCompany released a blog and said that the company “is not perfect” and may have made a few mistakes in its journey. The company also mentioned in the statement that in the coming weeks, there will be announcements regarding important programs to enhance earnings of partners.

Defending its payment model UrbanCompany said in a statement, “Urban Company partners earn a net average Rs 280-300 per hour, net of commissions, fee and all associated product and travel costs. The top quartile of service partners earn more than Rs 36,000 per month net of all commissions, fees, travel and product costs.”

The gig marketplace counts home based salon services as its most lucrative and largest business vertical that alone contributed to 55 percent of its revenue in FY20.

“All Urban Company service partners have access to life and accidental insurance cover…several partners also enjoy free health insurance through the platform,” said the company regarding allegations

With respect to allegations levelled about unavailability of insurance cover for gig workers, UrbanCompany said. “During the pandemic, we approved Rs 100 million worth of interest-free loans for all our beauty partners in lockdown regions. Our estimates suggest that in the offline world, service professionals earn on average between Rs 12,000-15,000 per month,” it further added.