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The Courts Businesses Transportation United States

Uber Faces Federal Investigation Over Alleged Gender Discrimination (bbc.com) 45

Posted by BeauHD from the he-said-she-said dept.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Uber is being investigated by U.S. authorities over a complaint about gender discrimination (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is leading the investigation, which began last August but hasn't been previously reported. From the report: EEOC investigators have been interviewing former and current Uber employees as well as seeking documents from Uber officials, these people said. The investigators have been seeking information related to hiring practices, pay disparity and other matters as they relate to gender, one person said. Uber, which hopes to debut on the public markets sometime in the second half of next year, is already is facing at least five other federal investigations by multiple agencies into its pricing practices, accusations of bribery by Uber executives abroad, and its use of software designed to evade local officials tracking its operations, among other matters.

The EEOC, tasked with enforcing federal laws against discrimination, generally responds to confidential complaints filed by workers against employers, and can file suit or seek private arbitration. Of roughly 90,000 complaints filed annually, a fraction result in a settlement or EEOC-led lawsuit. It is unclear whether the EEOC intends to take any action against Uber, which would be one of the agency's most prominent recent cases.
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Uber Faces Federal Investigation Over Alleged Gender Discrimination More

Uber Faces Federal Investigation Over Alleged Gender Discrimination

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  • I guess the details of the gig economy are of interest to /.ers, including corporate regulatory enforcement!

    That is all.

    • I'd be shocked if a company that's basic premise is operating an unlawful taxi company does unlawful things.

      I don't know about their hiring practices, but I wouldn't apply for a job at Uber without expecting that they'll probably not be following regulations. That's kinda their thing, not following regulations. They think the rules don't apply to them - that's what defines Uber as a company.

  • The fare is determined by an algorithm and is gender-blind. http://freakonomics.com/podcas... [freakonomics.com]

    • Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Informative)

      by kaka.mala.vachva ( 1164605 ) on Monday July 16, 2018 @04:56PM (#56959640)
      I don't think they are talking about paying Uber drivers - from the summary: > information related to hiring practices, pay disparity and other matters as they relate to gender, Sounds like Uber employees, not drivers.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        Makes sense, since the EEOC only deals with complaints and issues between employers and employees, not contractors. If contractors allege discriminatory selection or payment based on gender, and none of the companies/individuals are involved in federal contracts, then regulation and enforcement falls on individual state bodies.

  • Gender Discrimination? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What gender discrimination? Uber hired a transgender.

    Sure, the transgender killed someone. And it no longer works for Uber. But that's not Uber's fault.

  • I wish we had freedom of association (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is anyone else starting to long for open legal discrimination. I am. This is all bullshit money for lawyers and left wing nut jobs.. employers hire who does the job best for the least money... period. If they hire too few women or races of humans theres generally a practical reason for it.. especially today..

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why would you want the freedom to only associate with people of your own race?
      That sounds boring.

    • Re:I wish we had freedom of association (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dread_ed ( 260158 ) on Monday July 16, 2018 @11:17PM (#56960906) Homepage

      There are, count em, 5 government investigations into Uber currently. Pretty hard to wrack up that many concurrent investigations no matter what company you work for. Why would there be that many investigations going on? That has to put a severe strain on their company's legal budget and severely cramps the management team's time.

      Pardon me for being suspicious of shit like this. It's almost like the entrenched business interests and our government work together to squash innovative new companies that could compete and ultimately might topple the status quo.

      I think of it as the same kind of behavior Tesla experienced when they were trying to roll out manufacturer owned dealerships throughout the USA. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) lobbied the fuck out of many state's legislatures to make damn sure the wedge of franchise law was driven deeply between Tesla and their paying customers. Paying customers....sorry. You know, us...the public. Yeah, that's entrenched business interests using their position and power, through the law and state legislatures, to shit on the free market. Free market....sorry. You know, our freedom...our ability to use innovation, the public domain, and balls to contribute to creating progress.

      I still can't buy one in Texas from a dealership. It's against the fucking law.

      Don't get me started on Disney and their concerted efforts to bribe away every American's right to innovate with things that were created during their lifetime. Copyright law is already extended so far it fucking creates powerful entities with the ability to influence or outright control the laws about itself. "If you want access to your culture, you will need to pay first. Thank you, now I can buy enough congresspeople to make sure every generation from now until eternity will have to pay to watch Alladin." And we want that kind of monster recursively writing copyright law about itself?

      Not that I expect any of you to do anything about this. We just want to watch a show. It's fighting for its survival.

      God, where was I before I totally lost it? Oh yeah. Watch those entrenched interests. They won't let anything come between them and the parts of you they already own. Especially you.

    • I wish we had freedom of association

      You do. You can discriminate against who you like as a private citizen.

      If however you want to make an immortal entity which shields you from all liability then as an agent of that entity you can't.

      What I want ot know is why you expect to be granted more power than a private citizen but not have to hold yourself up to higher standards while you're using it.

  • I've noticed Uber is one of the few silicon valley (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jarwulf ( 530523 ) on Monday July 16, 2018 @05:49PM (#56959884)
    That doesn't go balls to the wall with social justice and environmental initiatives and PR. Maybe they can start up a girls only coding scholarship or hire more transgenders and loudly publicize it. That way they don't stick out as much as an inviting target or black sheep among all the other super leftwing sv corporations.

    • They actually got blackmailed by black lives matter (no pun intended) and had to donate a bunch of money to a restore an old Sears building in Sacramento, where one of the floors is a tribute to the black Panthers.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Ahh the old "You have to allow our racist hate group, but you are not allowed to have your own racist hate group" card.

    • I filed an EEOC complaint against Uber for retaliation. It's funny they hired a chick who trafficked drugs from Canada but can't seem to keep employees who pass FBI background checks

    • That doesn't go balls to the wall with social justice

      They go balls to the wall with breaking every law they can find and some they can't.

      What is amazing is that when we get an "uber breaks another law" story, there's a small number of cpaitalistas who defend uber on the grounds that anything done for money is legit and otheweise a general feeling of "yeah well it's Uber what do you expect".

      Unless, it appears it's anything gender related, in which case people seem to fall over themselves to defend them. I t

  • Granted I didn't work directly for Uber but I got let go whilst a female co-worker who I had reported because she just got out of prison in Canada for a year for drug trafficking got to keep her job. I guess I should let the feds know. Too bad normal background checks don't cover international crimes.

    • . Too bad normal background checks don't cover international crimes.

      It's Uber, dude: she PASSED the background check and you failed.

  • I just googled where the head office is (Score:3)

    by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Monday July 16, 2018 @06:43PM (#56960098) Journal

    Google fed back this response:

    "San Francisco, California, United States
    Uber/Headquarters"

    Based on that piece of information, my confidence in the article is already dropped 75%. The definition of gender discrimination in San Francisco is extremely broad. Who knows what they did, if *anything*.

    Endless social justice / politics comes out of that place, it's truly agonising.

  • At the rate they are burning through cash, credibility, and public goodwill, next years plan for an IPO seems likely to be another epic fail for Uber. They have went morphed from tech darlings into the poster child for greed, incompetence, corporate cultural failure, and technology overreach.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @03:17AM (#56961324)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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