Uber under investigation in the United States for sex discrimination

The investigation, which began in August, focuses on allegations of wage disparities and other discriminatory behaviors toward women, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the Business is private. This is one of the more than half a dozen federal investigations on the travel sharing company that emerged last year.

Uber is trying to rebuild his reputation after a tumultuous year where discrimination charges and dubious business practices fired about 20 employees and the departure of co-founder Travis Kalanick as a senior executive. Dara Khosrowshahi, who took control of Kalanick in September, said he was reforming Uber to make it a more ethical endeavor.

But Khosrowshahi's efforts suffered two major setbacks last week. On Tuesday, Uber reported the departure of Liane Hornsey, the director of human resources. The staff change came after a charge that she did not take allegations of racial discrimination seriously. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Barney Harford, Khosrowshahi's appointed operations director, had apologized to employees after complaints that he had made inconsiderate racist comments during a conference call.

"We are continually improving.As a business, we have made many changes proactively over the past 18 months," said Matt Kallman, spokesman for Uber. that the San Francisco-based company is setting up a new pay structure, reviewing its performance appraisal process and deploying diversity and leadership training for many of its 18,000 employees around the world. Discrimination investigation was reported early Monday by the Wall Street Journal.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declined to comment on the investigation, citing confidentiality rules. "L & # 39; information is made public only when the commission files a complaint, which is usually the last resort, "said spokeswoman Kimberly Smith-Brown.The agency has been closely examining Silicon Valley during the In 2016, he investigated Google for age-related discrimination and investigated similar allegations in Intel Corp.