New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS): After facing protests and social media storm over pay parity and working conditions, online home services provider Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap) on Thursday announced to slash the commission it charges from beauty service professionals from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

The company said that for beauty categories (in which almost all women partners work), it is reducing the highest commission slab given the impact of Covid-19 and other factors.

Earlier, commissions ranged from 8.5 per cent for small orders to 30 per cent for high-ticket orders.

The move came after more than 100 women beauticians staged a protest outside the company's office in Gurugram recently.

The company has now announced a 12-point programme to "significantly improve partner earnings and livelihood for all partners on our platform in India".

Earlier, there was no cap on penalties charged per month per partner, which was recently changed to put a maximum cap of Rs 3,000 on monthly penalties charged per partner.

"We are further reducing the maximum cap on monthly penalties per partner per month to Rs 1,500," the company said.

On last-minute cancellation by customers, the entire amount collected from customers for cancellation will be transferred to the partners.

"This was so far being done for UC Plus partners. Now it will be applicable to all our partners," the company said.

Moving forward, for any new product launches, deductions will be made after the products are delivered to the partners and post their consent.

"Additionally, we have reduced product prices of select high demand products by almost 10 per cent," said Urban Company, which is currently valued at $2 billion.

Presently, the partners are algorithmically blocked for a wide variety of reasons from working on the platform for short intervals.

"We have made a decision to remove all such algorithmic blocks apart from quality blocks. This simple change will reduce overall blocks by 80 per cent and ensure our partners do not lose out on available time on the platform," it announced.

For better take-home earnings for our partners, it is also "marginally" increasing prices of several high demand services across categories.

On insurance, the company said it will simplify the claims process for life and accidental insurance available to all the partners, and the health insurance available to its UC Plus partners.