Uber Faces Federal Investigation Over Alleged Gender Discrimination (bbc.com) 45
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.
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.
Interesting (Score:2)
I guess the details of the gig economy are of interest to /.ers, including corporate regulatory enforcement!
That is all.
Shocked if illegal taxi company does illegal stuff (Score:3)
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.
Wait, what? (Score:1)
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
This is not insightful, it's stupid and at odds with reality.
Oh also: you're defending Uber here.
You know the company that breaks laws with an almost cackling glee. Given the masive history of "uber=breaking laws" what makes you think this one is sacrosanct to them.
You don't. You're just yet another in a long parade of people who simply refuse to accept that any discrimination agianst women might occur anywhere at all and will jump through the most incredible mental gymnastics to justify your "viewpoint".
Re: Wait, what? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're not familiar with it or need a refresher, the typical "women only earn x cents on a man's dollar" figures don't control for things like hours worked (as per contract and overtime), years of experience education, if they're working full or part time, specialization, night shift and work during other irregular hours, vacation time, or willingness and ability to bargain for salary. When you start factoring in for those things the myth of the gender pay gap doesn't just die a death by a thousand cuts, it gets properly stabbed by many of the factors that I mentioned (just factoring in for part time work alone get us from 77 to 83 cents-on-the-dollar) and I wasn't even close to thorough in listing factors that cause a skew in improperly done analysis'.
Because of how badly inaccurate these comparisons tend to get, a parity or close-to-parity situation is actually a case of higher pay for the same work when examined with actual rigor.
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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)
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)
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)
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:2)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
Re:I wish we had freedom of association (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I wish we had freedom of association (Score:1)
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)
Re: I've noticed Uber is one of the few silicon va (Score:1)
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.
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Ahh the old "You have to allow our racist hate group, but you are not allowed to have your own racist hate group" card.
Re: I've noticed Uber is one of the few silicon va (Score:1)
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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
Got fired as contractor (Score:1)
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. 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)
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.
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You could at least read the headline that specifies it's federal investigation.
Uber IPO (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:3)
SO FUCKING RETARDED (Score:2)
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