This report has been written by one of the students who joined the WageIndicator Gig team during their Internship Program. The internship also allows the interns to contribute to the news collection and create visuals to give an overview of different platform economy topics.
Author: Mohammed Anfas K
Women workers hold the title of potential gig workforce in the growing field of the gig economy in India. The freedom and flexibility of gig work attract women workers to these platforms.
However, women's participation in gig platforms is negligible, especially in ride-hailing and food delivery platforms. Only a few platforms like Urban Company have a substantial share of women gig
workers, with approximately one-third of its contract workforce being women.
Despite Urban Company's significant presence in the gig economy for women workers, the platform's reported hostility and unfair practices force women gig workers to resist and endure hardships. The resistance of women gig workers against the unfair practices of Urban Company reveals the ever-evolving nature of conflicts within the domain of women gig workers and the platforms they navigate.
This article looks into the inspiring resistance of women gig workers in India, using the Urban Company worker protests as a captivating case study. It delves into the catalysts that drive these protests, the diverse strategies employed for mobilization, the consequential results achieved, and the challenges faced in organizing such movements, with a keen focus on the persistent gender-related obstacles within the Indian context.
The ‘beauty’ of Urban Company
The Urban Company (previously known as UrbanClap) is a prominent home service-providing gig platform in India that was launched in 2014. It is now Asia’s largest home services platform and one of
India’s highest venture capital-funded organizations. This company is well-known for providing work opportunities for women workers, especially in the beauty sector. The Urban Company professionalized the beauty work by providing proper training, standardizing, and directing the workers. This initiative is highly relevant in the cultural context of India, where beauty work is stigmatized as impure work done by those who are from a ‘lower caste.’ In that manner, Urban Company did a commendable job in transforming the beauty work industry in India. Similarly, the
Urban Company was able to revolutionize the home service industry and facilitate work opportunities for women workers.
Nevertheless, the professionalization attempts of Urban Company led to algorithmic and human supervision and control over the workforce. It often affected the flexibility of gig work as the workers
had to cope with the higher rating criteria of the company.
Struggle and Resistance
Similar to other gig platforms, the higher earnings, autonomy, and flexibility of the work were the primary motivating factors for the women workers to join Urban Company.
However, the higher commission charged by the platform, penalties for order (lead) cancellations, poor grievance redressal mechanism, suspension over low-rating and mandate for retraining were the major difficulties faced by these workers in the Urban Company.
Workers used to mitigate these difficulties using various tactics and ‘everyday resistances’ like declining the leads (only feasible for the higher-rated workers) and taking orders from off-platforms.
However, as a part of the expansion strategy of the company, it introduced the Minimum Guarantee (MG) plan, which enabled workers to have a job guarantee provided by paying a subscription fee. This plan compelled the workers to take at least 40 leads out of 60 leads in a month. This plan curbed the flexibility of workers, and the company compelled every worker to switch to this plan by reducing the allocation of leads to the non-plan workers.
Along with all the prevailing difficulties, the introduction of the MG plan mandated the workers to go for confrontational tactics.
The WhatsApp groups of workers emerged as an important instrument of information sharing and identity formation of workers. They shared their concerns, built a collective identity, and organized
their plan of action.
Initially, the workers went for direct negotiations and mediation with the management, but it was not effective in bringing any positive change. As a last resort, workers went on a logout strike with a public demonstration outside the Urban Company office in Gurgaon in October 2021. The workers demanded lowering and stabilizing commission rates, reinstating flexibility by easing cancellation policies, streamlining the rating system and separating it from mandatory retraining, enhancing workplace safety through implementing 24/7 support helpline for women, forbidding arbitrary ID blockages, striking policies that required employees to buy equipment and products from UC. They organized another wave of protests outside UC offices in December 2021 to put pressure on the firm to fulfil these obligations.
The ‘unhealthy’ path to success
Care responsibilities, safety concerns, and patriarchal controls constrained the engagement of women workers in the protest. Moreover, some workers showed reluctance to associate with mainstream unions due to suspicion around external parties trying to enter and hijack or profit from their movement.
Within these constraints, the women workers were able to conduct a historic protest in the National Capital Region. Even though the protest successfully achieved many of its demands, the company
haunted the leaders of the protest through shadow ID blocking and filing legal complaints against them. In many ways, the company tried to break the solidarity among workers. These practices of the company brought scepticism among the workers about the effectiveness of protest in the long run.
However, despite facing numerous challenges, the women workers managed to exhibit a model of resistance to the world. This struggle and resistance inspired the working women in other sectors to
voice out their issues. After the two protests in October and December 2021, the Urban Company again witnessed strong resistance from the women workers against various unfair practices of the company.
Recently, the women workers voiced out against the ID-blocking practices of the company. In a way, this countervailing pressure from women workers made Urban Company a relatively better place to work. Following the first protest of women workers, the company responded on their blog, “We are not perfect, and acknowledge that we might have made mistakes in our journey so far. In the coming weeks, we will be announcing some important programs which we believe will further enhance the earnings and well-being of our partner ecosystem.” It emphasises how collective bargaining and constructive criticism may prompt positive changes in the workplace.
Want to learn more about the position of women in the gig economy? Then check the blogs and recordings on the two webinars we organized around this topic: Women in Gig Work and Women in Gig Work - Web-Based Work.