Electricians, plumbers, groomers, and cleaners working for Urban Company will be allotted stock options in the company over the next 5-7 years, the company announced on March 2. The Partner Stock Ownership Plan (PSOP) will see the company award stocks worth Rs 150 crores to thousands of service partners at a near-zero cost, the company said. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a common reward system, especially among tech companies, but not many companies give stock options to gig workers because they are classified as contractors rather than employees. Uber, Ola, Zomato, and Swiggy, some of the largest platforms for gig workers, do not have any stock option plans for their drivers and delivery workers. "Urban Company’s Partner Stock Ownership Plan (PSOP) will help thousands of service partners become shareholders of the company, thereby enabling broad-based wealth creation through equity sharing. This is perhaps the first of its kind plan globally, where gig workers become shareholders of the very platform they work with. This will allow our service partners to benefit from the company’s growth in the coming years. This PSOP plan underscores our commitment to empower service partners and treat them as equal stakeholders in the company building journey." – Raghav Chandra, Cofounder of Urban Company This latest move by Urban Company to empower its partners contrasts the situation that the company was in last October when hundreds of workers protested low wages, high commissions, and poor working conditions. Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT),…
