Urban Company partners protest permanent ID blocking due to ‘unfair rating system’

The company’s official response reads, “We had recently asked a few partners who were not meeting the marketplace standards despite multiple prior notices and re-trainings, to part ways with the marketplace

Mumbai: As many as 30 partners of home services platform Urban Company (UC), which was earlier known as Urban Clap before 2018, gathered outside its office in Sion on Wednesday to protest the company’s policy of permanently blocking their IDs, often for stringent and arbitrary reasons like not meeting minimum rating of 4.7 which was recently increased from 4.5.

Mumbai, India - July 12, 2023 : Joining their fellow partners all over the country, partners of the Urban company gathered in protest of the companyÕs policy of blocking their IDs at Sion on Wednesday, with the support of the All-India Gig Workers Union (AIGWU) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo)

The main demands of the partners include unblocking their IDs, removing the permanent blocking system, and make no changes on the UC platform without the consent of the partners.

There are over 130 partners in the city who have had their IDs permanently blocked, from data collected through an online form circulated by the All-India Gig Workers Union (AIGWU).

The protestors joined gig workers (freelance workers) of the Urban Company at eleven other UC offices over the country for the UC Partners’ National Protest Day, called by the AIGWU and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

According to Nihira, who has been working with the UC as a partner for over two years, the number of partners facing blocked IDs has increased over the past six months, with mainly older workers facing the axe. Despite being promised flexibility and their preference at the time of joining, Nihira said partners are made to walk a tightrope if they are to keep receiving jobs, the conditions - which depend on the field of work salon, spa, cleaning, appliance repairs – for which have become more stringent and harder to meet. She suspects this is done as newer partners bring with them the joining fees, which is more profitable for the company.

“The UC increased the minimum rating requirement to 4.7 and even 4.85 out of 5 in some categories. The response rate requirements have been made unrealistically high – up to 70 out of 100 jobs have to be accepted and serviced. In addition to this, workers can only cancel up to five jobs per month, after which they are permanently blocked even if they have valid reasons,” said Shaubik Bhattacharya from the AIGWU.

“I have been working for Urban Company for seven years when it was called Urban Clap,” said a worker whose ID was blocked in early June for not meeting the minimum service acceptance rate of 70%. “At the start, it was great. I used to be able to earn ₹75,000 to ₹80,000 in a month, but lately, I’ve barely been able to earn ₹25,000.”

A salon worker in the prime category, she paid ₹35,000 as joining fees and a subscription fee, termed “MG plan,” of ₹2,100 per month to receive a steady stream of jobs over and above the commission UC deducts. She had reduced the number of jobs she was taking up due to personal reasons, which she informed the company on a call in April. Despite keeping up her customer ratings over 4.7 - recently increased from 4.5 - her ID was blocked. She did not want to share her name for fear that her ID would not be reinstated.

Another worker who works as an AC technician, Alauddin Khan, has had his ID blocked since February, after undergoing a training session in the winter months. He was told he had a low service delivery rate and failed the training, despite working for a few months after training. He paid ₹9,000 per month for the MG plan subscription, without which, the partners claimed they get very few leads/jobs coming their way.

A select few protesters then proceeded to the Urban Company office to hand over a letter of their demands and grievances but were not allowed in.

“We are trying to meet the CEO of Urban Company. Our main demand is that the blocked IDs are reinstated. If it doesn’t get sorted out, we’ll go to the office of the labour commissioner,” said Manoj Yadav, coordinator of the Maharashtra chapter of AIGWU.

Vivek Monteiro, Maharashtra CITU secretary, said, “If the gig workers are not reinstated, we will approach the High Court. The company gets away with treating the workers like this because of the tag of ‘partner’ and we want to change that. They will then not be allowed to spontaneously terminate the workers, as well as be liable to give them statutory benefits.”

The company’s official response reads, “We had recently asked a few partners who were not meeting the marketplace standards despite multiple prior notices and re-trainings, to part ways with the marketplace. We continue to maintain an open-door policy and encourage dialogue with our partners. We remain committed to building a safe, high-quality home services platform.” They added that their partners earn an average of ₹30,625 per month if they complete more than 30 services a month.