Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Uber has agreed to pay $4.4m to settle claims it allowed employees to be sexually harassed and then allowed retaliation against them when they came forward.
In a deal struck with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this week, the ride broker has agreed to put the money into a fund that will be used by the EEOC to pay back those employees who were faced with harassment. The commission described Uber as allowing "a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complained about such harassment."
The fund will be available to employees who believe they experienced harassment and/or retaliation for reporting harassment between January 2014 and June 2019. That period covers the bulk of the reign of Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO, whose "tech bro" culture was blamed for creating a notoriously hostile climate for women working at Uber.
Kalanick would eventually step down from the company and, under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber has undertaken a prolonged charm offensive in an effort to clean up its public image.
The $4.4m fund will be the latest step in that effort, as Uber has agreed to not only pay up the money, but also establish what was described as "a system for identifying employees who have been the subject of more than one harassment complaint and for identifying managers who fail to respond to concerns of sexual harassment in a timely manner."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by black6host on Wednesday December 25 2019, @06:31AM (1 child)
If you don't include real out of pocket expenses that would normally go against your profit: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/11/uber-lost-1-1-billion-last-quarter-says-rides-are-profitable-sort-of/ [arstechnica.com] then the settlement is just chump change to them. And, if they aren't making money (they aren't) who cares about another 4 million or so?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 25 2019, @06:43AM
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/24/travis-kalanick-to-depart-uber-board-of-directors.html [cnbc.com]
Sell while the company is still worth something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 25 2019, @06:57AM
and cashed out his remaining stock today(?). I wonder if these things are related?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 25 2019, @07:59AM (4 children)
I still can't understand how uber exists. I worked/lived through all the dot-com nonsense, and uber remains the great mystery to me.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Wednesday December 25 2019, @10:39AM
It lives on venture capital until such time as either that runs out or they finish knocking the bottom out of the taxi market, whichever comes first. If they progress enough towards establishing a job sector which consists entirely of gigs without benefits or stable hours and in which the chumps are providing their own equipment, work space, and maintenance, then they will leverage that to extend into other sectors. The damage is already being felt. Employees are already getting ripped off elsewhere based on the example that Uber sets and "employees" commnly have zero-hour contracts unless they are both in a strong position as well as strong negotiators. A few places are even starting to rent work space and equipment to these zero-hour employees.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 25 2019, @03:03PM (2 children)
What's mysterious about Uber?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @07:24PM (1 child)
Not OP. I would answer, given the clue about the dot-com bust, "How they continue to survive with investors lining up despite no profits and no discernable method to achieving profitability that offers a likelihood of success."
Uber is only one of many that makes me seriously wonder how much "stupid money" is out there looking for the prospect of a home. (What busts, recessions, and depressions are made of...)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 27 2019, @01:04AM
(Score: 2) by Username on Wednesday December 25 2019, @01:18PM (2 children)
Her manager told her he was in an open relationship and his partner was able to find other people and he wasn't. Then she tried getting him fired for saying it so she could get his job "game of thrones" style. The retaliation was them letting her move to any other position in the company so she doesn't have to interact with him instead of giving her his job.
Yeah, he probably shouldn't be talking that way at work, but seems overblown. She seems to be the professional victim type. The wiki article about her says she got through university by complaining and appealing decisions. Not sure where to look for law records, but I wouldn't be surprised is she sued every place shes ever been.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday December 26 2019, @07:50AM
So a choice of working someplace sexist like Uber, or working at Uber with people like that who Uber's hiring process carefully selected as a match for their work culture. Hmm...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26 2019, @09:35PM
So did I. A couple of points of education: Making an unwanted sexual proposition to somebody at work is harassment. As a supervisor, on an employee's first day, doubly so. There's no "probably" about how he should have been talking at work. The retaliation was HR informing him that if she stayed in her position she could expect a poor performance review. That makes the harassment systemic and not just the action of one individual. She further describes problems. There is a lot in her post that describes a toxic work environment at Uber for women.
I'd be interested in exactly how you think she's a, "professional victim type".
Now, that would only be her story... but this isn't the story of one woman's experience, either, if you'd bother to read the full story.
Do I expect you to learn anything from that? Nope. But now the facts are out their to counter what you've said.