Hyderabad: Women workers associated with Urban Company, a one-stop service for household repair works, beauty treatments, deep cleaning, and pest control, on Monday held a protest in front of the company’s main office in Madhapur against the ‘discriminatory practices’ of the company.
According to the protesting employees, they constantly face threat of terminations and discriminatory practices by Urban Company.
Siasat.com spoke to Chandrika, a UC worker, who said that since last year, over 200 women and men workers were terminated without any explanation.
“Sometimes the customer cancels an appointment without any reason or gives us false feedback, and we as employees are affected. In many cases, our accounts are blocked. If the customer cancels the appointment, we bear the brunt as Urban Company demands we cancel the appointment after reaching the destination. This affects us badly,” Chandrika said.
Chandrika alleged apart from financial trouble, they face mental torture too. “Urban Company promises high salaries at the time of joining. But they have been cheating us and cutting our wages without informing us or giving a proper explanation. We are forced to pay Rs 50 thousand to start working with them,” Chandrika said.
Chandrika said they even went to police with and filed a complain but the Madhapur police station refused to file an FIR against the company.
When contacted, Madhapur police station SHO who said that the matter comes under the Labour department and suggested the parties approach the labour authorities to solve the issue.
Despite repeated attempts, office bearers of Urban Company in Madhapur did not respond to queries raised by Siasat.com.
“We demand to be treated as employees/workers. We should be involved in major decisions that affect our employment and work experience. There should be algorithmic accountability, and the company should compensate for our stolen wages. We demand that our fundamental rights be protected as enshrined in the Indian Constitution labour laws,” Chandirka said.
