Uber
has reached a $10 million settlement agreement with 420 females and minority
engineers in a discrimination lawsuit that alleged the company’s policies, patterns, and
practices, resulted in female engineers receiving less compensation and in being
promoted less frequently than their male counterparts.
Roxana
del Toro Lopez, who worked at Uber as a Software Engineer for two years,
brought the lawsuit against the company. Del Toro alleged that she was originally
brought in as an independent contractor, with lower pay, instead of a full-time
employee. She further alleged that she was constantly assigned to tasks and duties
that were less meaningful, challenging or important than her male engineers in
the same position.
Del
Toro accused Uber of having a performance measurement system that systematically
disadvantaged female employees. Del Toro alleged that female employees were systematically
undervalued, compared to their similarly situated male peers doing jobs that
required equal skill, effort and responsibility. She claimed that female
employees constantly received lower ratings than their male peers – despite
having equal or better performance – leading to female engineers receiving less
promotions, salary, bonuses, cash, and other compensation than their male
counterparts. Del Toro’s attorneys claimed that the difference in pay was a
result of gender discrimination, and not due to any difference in seniority, merit,
quantity, or quality of production.
Del
Toro and other employees sued Uber for lost compensation, as well as an end to
Uber’s current practices, and a change in its current performance evaluation
process. As a result of this settlement, Uber agreed to publish a diversity
report twice a year and changed its salary structure and performance review
system.