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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.
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.