Urban Company's beauty segment workers stage protests over ID blocking

The partners have alleged that Urban Company blocked their cards if their ratings fell below 4.8 out of 5

Home services company Urban Company has been facing protests yet again at its Gurugram office over allegations of unfairly blocking the IDs of partners on the platform, according to media reports. Those protesting work in the company’s beauty services segment.

The partners have alleged that Urban Company blocked their cards if they got ratings below 4.8 out of 5. They were also penalised if the users canceled the bookings.

So far, the company has seen protests for two days in a row, as partners with blocked IDs demand that they be reinstated and that they be given a chance to air grievances. The partners who protested at Urban Company's Gurugram office say that the company has asked for a week to review their cases, but they are not optimistic that their IDs will be reinstated.

A partner, who had been on the platform for several years before being blocked over cancellations, told MoneyControl, that it was unfair that workers were never given a chance to appeal decisions that affect them, and they are blocked indiscriminately. If a worker's response rate, or the rate at which they accept bookings offered, falls below 80 per cent, their ID may be blocked, the partner added.

The issue of blocked accounts is not limited to salon service providers but is also affecting partners from various other segments working with Urban Company. According to the beauticians, even when they had available time slots for appointments, the Urban Company app sometimes failed to display the availability of partner beauticians to customers, negatively impacting their income.

This is not the first time Urban Company has faced protests from its partners. In response to policy changes, salon partners demonstrated against the company in 2021. During that time, calling the protest illegal, Urban Company had taken legal action against four protesters.

The current protests come at a difficult time for Urban Company, as the firm comes to terms with rising losses amid a funding drought. In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), Urban Company's consolidated net loss more than doubled to Rs 514 crore from Rs 249.2 crore in FY21 because of rising expenses.