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Uber Plans Millions In Back Pay After Shorting NYC Drivers (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cheapskates dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Uber Technologies Inc. said it underpaid its New York City drivers by improperly calculating the company's share of passenger fares, and will pay out an average of $900 per driver in restitution, costing tens of millions of dollars. The back pay could run at least $45 million, based on the approximately 50,000 drivers the Independent Drivers Guild says work in New York City. The ride-hailing company has previously misled drivers about how much they could make and miscalculated fares. In this case, Uber was taking its cut of fares based on the pretax sum, instead of after taxes and fees as stated in its terms of service. The issue was also raised in a lawsuit against San Francisco-based Uber filed by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. In March, Uber acknowledged that it had underestimated drivers' pay in Philadelphia by millions of dollars. "We are committed to paying every driver every penny they are owed -- plus interest -- as quickly as possible," Rachel Holt, Uber's head of U.S. operations, said in a statement. "We are working hard to regain driver trust, and that means being transparent, sticking to our word, and making the Uber experience better from end to end."

6 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. This is by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    The technique commonly known as "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:This is by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

      and then we will pay 30K-40K / year to lock up paul.

  2. Plus Interest? by wisnoskij · · Score: 2

    So what Interest are they getting? The article mentions the average and total, but not how much interest they are making.

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    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  3. Welcome to the gig economy... by matbury6017 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...where you're beholden to one corporation for your work, have no benefits or statutory rights, and have to take legal action to get what you're owed. Meanwhile, politicians sit back and do little to nothing to address a systemic problem that has only political and legal solutions.

  4. Re:Lyft by DRJlaw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Give it up Lyft. No one is using you.

    I used Lyft twice last week. I also deleted the Uber app earlier this year and have pretty much devided that I'll use a taxi before supporting Kalanick's demon spawn of a company.

    So there.

  5. Uber not so Über by LesserWeevil · · Score: 2

    Uber seems to have screwed the pooch in just about every area possible lately. What is it, greed, ignorance or simply mendacity? All three?