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Uber Faces Engineers' Lawsuit Alleging Gender, Race Bias (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Uber was sued by three Latina engineers who claim the company pays women and people of color less than their peers and doesn't promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians. The three women from the ride-hailing company, one of whom still works there, accused Uber of violating California's Equal Pay Act in a complaint filed Tuesday in San Francisco state court on behalf of all engineers similarly held back. The women filed the complaint under a state statute that gives employees the right to step into the shoes of the state labor secretary to bring enforcement actions. That law also may give them a way around a provision in Uber's contracts requiring workplace disputes to go through one-on-one arbitration instead of as group actions in court. "Female employees and employees of color are systematically undervalued compared to their male and white or Asian American peers because female employees and employees of color receive, on average, lower rankings despite equal or better performance," according to the complaint against Uber. In July, Uber said that it adjusted salaries to ensure equity in pay for women and minorities.
"Uber said that it adjusted salaries to ensure equity in pay for women and minorities."
What the hell?
So, their jobs pay differently, depending on your gender or race? What. The. Fuck.
Uber was sued by three Latina engineers who claim the company pays women and people of color less than their peers and doesn't promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians. The three women from the ride-hailing company
As we all know here, there is a huge difference between an average and a good engineer in terms of productivity and value to the company.
There is nothing here to indicate these three were equal quality engineers or not. Maybe they were and Uber is evil. But why do we have to assume everyone deserves equal pay just for showing up regardless of what they actually do?
The ERA is equal pay for equal work. There is nothing to indicate the work is equal. Maybe it is, but it's just sad and disgusting that that's rendered a non-issue in 2017 America.
Stop complaining about trolls and start complaining about editors. Ever wonder why there are so many trolls here? Stories like this attract them because they're easy places to annoy people and get responses. These stories may be about a tech company, but they're not particularly interesting to nerds who actually want to talk about doing stuff with technology. If you want fewer trolls, request fewer stories like this one. Slashdot used to rarely run stories like this, but now they're a dime a dozen.
If you don't like how much you're paid, and if you feel that the only way to get what you feel deserve is a lawsuit, then you've proven to me that you never deserved the money in the first place. No one is forcing you to work at a place where you feel undervalued. It's more likely that you've overestimated your own worth.
I know in my local area Uber is much valued service that most people love having around. I hear co-workers, friends, and even random people around that all talk about how great Uber is to have around. I have tried out being a driver and it was a good experience. I tried it for a few weeks and just found it wasn't for me and didn't really need it as extra income, but overall there was nothing really negative about the experience. Is it just the "nerd/geek" culture that seems to be completely fired up anytime there is a piece of bad news or another lawsuit against Uber? If so, why does the tech community seemed to be so targeted on Uber? Loads of companies, tech industry or not, are getting sued all the time. What is it about Uber that grabs our attention? Or is this just a Slashdot thing? Slashdot does seem to love an Uber story.
Sent from my TARDIS
Regardless of whether this lawsuit has merit or not, this is why most businesses tell their employees not to discuss salaries/compensation. Even when it isn't discrimination (and yes, you better believe it still happens), there's literally no upside for the company.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Those poor Asians. They get discriminated against in university admissions with the blessing of the federal government and SJWs, and now they're not even included in discrimination lawsuits any more. In fact they're named right up with the evil white males as being part of the problem. I really feel for them, they have to work twice as hard for the same result that everyone else gets.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I didn't realize there were uncolored people. Do you mean people of darker skin tones? So you're excluding some eastern Asians and some Greek people or Jewish people? Is it necessary to make ambiguous delineations? Please stop using euphemisms that harken back to derogatory terms such as "colored" and speak directly.
Plainly, who exactly are you talking about?
Regardless of race or gender, it's a pretty terrible way of motivating people. In sectors where team performance is really crucial to success it is really damaging.
This suit is being brought under California's Private Attorney General Act, aka the "Sue Your Boss" law. The state will get 75% of any payout, but the real bonanza will be to the attorneys. Because the employer is on the hook for all legal costs, they'll profit handsomely. This law was a gift to the plaintiff bar and has resulted in things like a 2013 suit against Goodyear Tire for allegedly failing to issue wage statements that included the last four digits of employees’ social security or employee ID numbers. The plaintiff got $1k while the attorneys got $105k.
That there's harassment and discrimination going on at Uber!
It's UNTHINKABLE! INCONCEIVABLE!
There is no reasoning in the parent comment...
Uber designs their own faces? I know they were two-faced, but this is creepy.
No mod points, but excellent post: very insightful.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Lawyers have used accident claims as a source of income for years, but now we'll be getting random calls from legal firms asking "have you been a victim of race or gender discrimination?" We're probably going to see a lot more of these lawsuits in the future as big companies are an easy target and many will likely settle to avoid negative publicity.
female employees and employees of color receive, on average, lower rankings despite equal or better performance,
How do these women know what their peers are making in terms of compensation and ratings? I'm not doubting what they may claim, but does Uber making total compensation and ratings public?
They give promotions and raises to engineers??!
Everyone know that to get a promotion or a raise then you have to move to another company.
Promotions within company are for management level and above only.
Aren't "people of color"????
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Large companies don't seem to have these issues because they have a whole legal and HR team advising every single action. Also, every place I've worked has had a zero tolerance policy when things like sexual harassment are involved. Basically unless you're an executive or top salesman or connected in some other way, they don't mess around when they start getting complaints about people. (Sales always gets a free pass in my experience, however.)
Maybe as Uber has been growing so quickly, and were built on disrupting everything, they felt they didn't need to go this route. But look at companies like IBM...they've been dismantling their entire US workforce and firing everyone over a certain age, and have been doing it all legally from what it seems.
Stop hiring women and minorities as they will sue for lack of promotions due to incapability.
If tech companies would stop hiring members of the outrage culture these problems would suddenly cease.
Here's an idea: stop hiring wheezy whiny bitch types. Double down on the bro code. Be Amazon.
Yes. It is really that simple.
As a class, they work harder, spend more time on school work as children, have families that demand they always do better and get top grades, stronger family support structures that value education, and frown upon pop culture idol worship.
Work. School. Family. Success.
That simple.
If your skin tone happens to belong to the group seen as doing well... welcome to the other side of racial politics. Your individual case doesn't matter, you're "the man" because of your skin.
Asians are generally perceived as hard working and well educated, so they're now getting lumped in with white people.
I'll reserve final judgment for once both sides have had a chance to present evidence supporting their position, though given what we already know about the culture at Uber, there's a certain ring of truth to the claims.
That aside, there was an interesting little nugget about how someone worked as a temp for give or take 3 years. Seems the permatemp lesson has been forgotten already. Then again, Uber's whole business model seems to be based on the idea that they don't need to follow the law or regulations that other companies do, and banking on the wheels of government moving slowly, so that by the time they get slapped down, it's already too late, the competition is gone. So maybe they were fully cognizant of the permatemp rule and just decided to ignore it like just about every other law and regulation.
Is anyone really surprised by this? Humans are just animals with a few millimeters thick layer of what we laughingly refer to as 'civilization'. When it comes right down to it we're really not that much better than any other animal on this planet. If we, as a species, make it through the next few hundred years (let alone the next 1000 years) I'd be damned surprised.
This is what happens to people/companies that cater to the SJW narrative. They get sued/sexual allegations made against them as a result.
There are situations where discrimination is blatant and severe remedies are called for. However there are situations that are really hard to get right. For example if you have a hard and fast rule that anyone who misses work or is late five times in one year is fired and you stick to that rule you might find that people with young children are adversely effected. But that same rule would also get rid of people who drink too much. The employer need not look at the sex or marital status or age of the employee in question. So just how would the employer know that a certain group was adversely effected by the rule? Then we come to another hurdle. There are plenty of Americans who weigh 300 lbs. or more. Can a 95 lb. female flip a 3oo lb. person over her shoulder and carry him 80 feet down a ladder? For that matter can a 120 lb. man do the same thing? So would allowing the smaller folks to fill fireman's positions you would be either requiring far more employees to respond to a fire or sentencing larger people to burning to death. And those fat folks are tax payers as well. Another place where we see the problem is when a cop confronts an individual of certain ethnic backgrounds. A white suburbanite will tend to comply with a cop's orders. But a young black male will tend to move a lot, walk about, make all kinds of rants and gestures. He will not want to be told anything by a white officer and very little from a black officer as well. That walking about and ranting is excessively dangerous to cops. Suspects are known to spin about and shoot cops. The same is true of a foot chase. If the suspect has a gun in the front of his shirt he can spin and fire before a cop can react. Yet fairness also requires that all people are treated the same. In my state not so long ago anyone who ran from a cop could be gunned down with no questions asked. Very, very few people would try to run from a cop. Now the cops are not allowed to shoot simply because a person is running and now most younger suspects run creating a life and death hazard every time they run.
The JOY of integration is upon us.