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Uber to pay $4.4 million to settle EEOC charge of sexual harassment and retaliation

December 19, 2019

Human cloud, ride-sharing firm Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) agreed to settle a 2017 US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge of sexual harassment and retaliation, the EEOC announced Wednesday. Uber will establish a class fund of $4.4 million to compensate anyone the EEOC determines experienced sexual harassment and/or related retaliation after Jan. 1, 2014.

In addition, Uber agreed to create 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. It will also update its policies with input from a third-party consultant and continue conducting climate surveys and exit interviews with specific attention to workplace sexual harassment and retaliation, according to the EEOC.

Uber will also be monitored for three years by an outside party, former EEOC Commissioner Fred Alvarez.

The settlement resolves a 2017 EEOC Commissioner’s charge of sex discrimination, ending an investigation in which the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that Uber permitted a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complained about such harassment, in violation Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“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,” said Uber's Chief Legal Officer Tony West. “I am extremely pleased that we were able to work jointly with the EEOC in continuing to strengthen these efforts.”

The pre-litigation agreement was voluntarily entered into by Uber and obtained through the EEOC’s conciliation process. A claims administrator will now send notices to every female employee who worked at Uber at any point between Jan. 1, 2014, and June 30, 2019.