Uber's overall reputation has taken a lot of hits in 2017, not the least of which were allegations in February of widespread sexual harassment and an overall culture of sexism from a former female engineer at the company, Susan Fowler. The allegations led to Uber hiring former Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a internal investigation at the company, and his report from that investigation is expected to be released to workers next week, as Fortune reports.
Now, Bloomberg tech reporter Eric Newcomer breaks the story that 20 Uber employees are getting terminated today in connection with the probe. SFist can not yet independently confirm the details, nor have any names been released.
More than 20 Uber employees terminated as part of sexual harassment probe
— Eric Newcomer 🐼 (@EricNewcomer) June 6, 2017
The law firm of Perkins Coie investigated Fowler's claims and has made formal recommendations to the company, some or all of which are going to be adopted. The details were expected to be the likely center of Uber's weekly all-hands meeting, which happens every Tuesday.
Per Bloomberg, Perkins Coie attorney Bobbie Wilson addressed Uber's 12,000 employees Tuesday morning with details of their investigation of over 250 sexual harassment claims, and they apparently decided to take no action in 100 of them. 57 claims remain under investigation, 31 employees are in counseling or training, and seven received written warnings, according to a company spokesperson. The names of those terminated were not announced, however one source told Bloomberg that several were senior executives.*
On Monday, as Fortune reported, Uber hired Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei as senior vice president of Leadership and Strategy. Frei will report directly to CEO Travis Kalanick.
Holder is now a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, and along with fellow partner Tammy Albarran, he conducted a broader review of sexual harassment incidents at the company and is expected to discuss general questions about diversity and inclusion in his report. But the release of the report was delayed from this week to next week, possibly because of the terminations.
Previously, Holder was hired by Airbnb to help address their discrimination problem with hosts.
I'll update you as we learn more.
Previously: Ex-Uber Engineer Says Company Is Full Of Sexual Harassment, Intimidation
* This post has been corrected to show that the company chose to take no action in 100 of the sexual harassment claims.
