Last year, three female software engineers accused Uber of rampant discrimination against women and minorities. The women alleged that they were paid less than men and that managers had allowed a hostile work environment to fester.
On Tuesday, Uber agreed to pay $10 million to settle the resulting class-action suit brought on behalf of 420 female and minority engineers. As part of the proposed settlement, the company said it would change how it decides employee compensation and promotions in addition to providing women and minorities with more training and mentoring.
Tech companies, in recent years, have been under fire for the underrepresentation of women and certain minority groups in their workforces. Many of those companies have promised to do better, but change is slow, as shown in the diversity reports that a number of tech firms now regularly publish that detail the demographic makeup of their employees.
In a statement, Uber told news site Axios: “This settlement involves claims dating back to July 2013 and, while we are continually improving as a company, we have proactively made a lot of changes since then. In the past year alone we have implemented a new salary and equity structure based on the market, overhauled our performance review process, published our first Diversity & Inclusion report and created and delivered diversity and leadership trainings to thousands of employees globally.”
In agreeing the settle the discrimination suit, Uber is putting one more scandal behind it. Under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the company has settled a number of other unflattering and unrelated lawsuits as part of an effort to repair its tattered reputation.
The discrimination suit was originally brought by three women, Ingrid Avendano, Roxana del Toro Lopez and Ana Medina, who described themselves as Latina software engineers. They had alleged that Uber’s practices, including how it evaluated employees, caused them to lose out on earnings and promotions.
The San Francisco Superior Court judge in the case must still approve the proposed settlement.
