Beauticians protest against Urban Company over ID card blockade: Report

Urban Company is hit by protest after a group of beautician partners raised concerns over the "permanent blockage" of their ID cards.

Inc 42 reported about the grievances faced by the beauticians who work for the Gurugam-based company. Several women staged demonstrations at Udyog Vihar, outside the head office of Urban Company for two consecutive days this week. The beauticians claimed that Urban Company has blocked them out of the platform due to issues related to booking cancellation, taking off from work, and a decline in ratings on the mobile application.

Urban Company has shared a response with media organisations on the ongoing protest by beauticians. The company said, "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".

This is not the first protest that Urban Company is facing, in 2021, the home services marketplace was found in controversy when women beauticians spoke about "unfair work practices" in public. At that time several beauty partners rejected to take orders from customers in protest against alleged high commissions collected by the startup and poor working conditions.

Last year also some women claimed they faced targeted actions by the company which led to work drying up for them.

In 2021, UC's subscription policy (flexi scheme) asking service providers to pay a fee for job leads through their app backfired, and around 300 women beauticians staged the protest.

Urban Company offers a platform connecting service professionals to customers, like ride-hailing firms. Just like cab prominent cab services companies, Urban Company has also refused to recognise its service professionals as employees.

In 2021, UC sued the workers in a civil court to stop their protest. But the Gurugram court found the company's filings "devoid of merits", following which UC withdrew suit on 29 March 2022.