Newly minted Unicorn UrbanCompany has found itself in a soup with a section of its gig workers going on a strike. A section of female workers including beauticians and salon experts have gone on strike on account of exploitation and unfair work practices.

A group of female gig workers have refused to take new orders from customers in order to protest against ‘high commissions’ charged by the marketplace along with poor safety working conditions such as late night shifts. They also alleged low wages as a reason behind the strike.

The events unfolded over the weekend as various beauty partners took to social media to share their experiences by way of videos and tweets.

The startup released a blog and said that the company “is not perfect” and may have made a few mistakes in its journey. It also stated that announcements will be made regarding important programs to enhance earnings of partners in the coming weeks.

UrbanCompany came forward to defend its payment model and 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 has over 35000 workers registered on its platform. Home based salon services were the company’s most lucrative and largest business vertical that alone contributed to 55 percent of its revenue in FY20.
Coming right at the heels of the festive business which is usually the busiest time of the year, this does not bode well for the on-demand service marketplace.

With respect to allegations levelled about unavailability of insurance cover for gig workers, UrbanCompany said, “All Urban Company service partners have access to life and accidental insurance cover…several partners also enjoy free health insurance through the platform.”

The company also mentioned in a statement that “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”.

A few months ago, Swiggy and Zomato delivery partners had also come forward with similar issues.