Urban Company CEO Abhiraj Bhal defends policies amid gig worker protests

Abhiraj Singh Bhal, founder and CEO, Urban Company

Amid protests by gig workers, home services startup Urban Company founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal said that local politicians and unions seek to gain mileage from such conflicts and put pressure on the firm.

Bhal also addressed the pushback against the company’s new policies that penalise gig workers for sustained lower ratings from users and restricts them from cancelling assignments in certain situations.

"Sometimes there is pressure on us. Local politicians and unions get involved; some may seek political mileage," Bhal said. "There is pressure on us to take back the protesting workers, but it would be unfair to the vast majority of other hardworking partners and customers."

Bhal made it clear that the company prefers to deal directly with its partners.

"We are always open to talking to partners one-on-one and explaining our rationale," he stated. "But we will not talk to people outside the UC community. We don’t recognize them and have no relation with them," Bhal said.

This is the first time the company ahs openly spoken on the issue and addressed the pushback against the firm's new policies introduced early last year under 'Mission Shakti.'

The protests have been ongoing since last year, primarily due to stricter performance metrics. As part of the new policy, Urban Company introduced a minimum rating of 4.3-4.7 and automated task assignments.

Partners claim these changes, along with limits on cancellations per month, risk their jobs. Several gig workers' unions have joined the protests, including the Centre Of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All Indian Gig Workers Union (AIGWU), and Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU).

Clearing the air 

Bhal defended the new rating system, noting, "The average rating of a service partner is around 4.83. This might seem high, but most customers end up giving 5 stars. Depending on the category, we have defined a minimum threshold of 4.3-4.7 which is well below the average.”

He emphasised the company invests significantly in training workers and gives them multiple opportunities to undergo re-training once they fall below the rating threshold.

"We spend an average of Rs 50,000 on just onboarding. It is in our interest to re-train them. They are very often given more than two options to undergo the re-training. However, even after that, if they fall below the threshold, unfortunately, we have to counsel their move on. It leads to dissatisfaction among them because they don’t enjoy the same earnings outside as compared to UC,” he said.

“This has been one of the biggest reasons for the protests, typically by partners who have fallen below the threshold even after re-training,” he added.

The auto-acceptance mandate has also been a major issue among protesting workers.

Bhal explained that while partners can choose their working hours and take long absences without questions, they are expected to fulfill orders during their indicated working hours, with allowances made for emergencies through three monthly passes and minimum guarantees.

"If we don’t change and keep everything the same, including quality thresholds, SOPs, or fulfillment, then we run the risk of becoming a stagnant marketplace that doesn’t keep up with customers and will get disrupted by another platform. While we feel sad about these instances, it’s a huge business loss for us and other hardworking partners,” he said.

Abhiraj noted that most partners are happy with the new policies and the flexibility offered.

"The fraction of which are protesting because they want everything the way it was when they had the option of both choosing the time slots and accepting orders,” he said.

As of today, Urban Company claims to operate with 57,000 partners, who managed to deliver 23 million services on the platform in FY24. Per the latest earnings index, a partner is able to clock an average monthly net earnings of Rs 33,469 (based on delivering less than 30 services a month) while the top 20 percent of partners manage to touch Rs 42,792.

The firm claims to have spent Rs 138 crore in training and upskilling over 35,000 partners in FY24 and disbursed Rs 6.29 crore as insurance claims among 1,800 partners.