Uber Settles Federal Investigation Into Workplace Culture

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: In 2017, a former Uber employee wrote a public essay describing how the ride-hailing company had permitted sexual harassment to fester at the workplace. The revelations led to an outcry over Uber’s toxic culture. Federal authorities and others began investigations into the company. More than 20 employees were later fired over their part in the behavior. And the disclosures raised questions about Uber’s growth-at-all-costs mentality, resulting in the ousting of Travis Kalanick, a co-founder and then the chief executive. On Wednesday, Uber resolved one investigation into its workplace culture (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has been examining the company since 2017, said it had “found reasonable cause to believe that Uber permitted a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complained about such harassment.” Uber said it had agreed to a settlement with the agency by establishing a $4.4 million fund to pay current and former employees who were sexually harassed at work. It also agreed to three years of monitoring by a former agency commissioner to ensure that it changes its practices. “The company remains under investigation by the Justice Department over a tool it created to help it evade scrutiny by law enforcement authorities,” the report adds. “It is also the subject of a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission over its privacy practices until 2038.”