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Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
- Uber will pay $4.4 million into a fund to compensate employees who suffered sexual harassment while working at the company.
- The payment is part of a settlement by Uber that resolves sex discrimination charges brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2017.
- Uber also agreed to put new measures in place aimed at identifying repeat subjects of sexual harassment complaints as well as managers who fail to promptly respond to complaints.
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The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that Uber had agreed to pay $4.4 million to victims of alleged gender discrimination.
According to a press release announcing the settlement, Uber agreed to compensate "anyone who the EEOC determines experienced sexual harassment and/or related retaliation."
The agency did not specify which incidents the settlement relates to but noted that charges were initiated "after widespread publicity in 2017 concerning the treatment of female employees at Uber."
In February of that year, Susan Fowler, an Uber engineer published a widely-read blog post in which she said HR ignored her complaints about a manager who propositioned her for sex. Fowler said she was told the manager was considered a high-performer who shouldn't be punished for "an innocent mistake."
In June of 2017 Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigned as CEO in response to criticism about the internal culture and growth-at-all-costs mentality within the company on his watch.
Uber also agreed to put new measures in place aimed at identifying repeat subjects of sexual harassment complaints as well as managers who fail to promptly respond to complaints.
"The tech industry, among others, has often ignored allegations of sexual harassment when an accused harasser is seen as more valuable to the company than the accuser," EEOC Director William Tamayo said in a statement.
The settlement puts an end to an EEOC investigation that found "reasonable cause" to believe that Uber "permitted a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complained about such harassment."
"We've worked hard to ensure that all employees can thrive at Uber by putting fairness and accountability at the heart of who we are and what we do," Uber chief legal officer Tony West said in the announcement. "I am extremely pleased that we were able to work jointly with the EEOC in continuing to strengthen these efforts."
