Uber Fires 20 Employees After Investigation of Harassment and Bias Claims

Uber has dismissed 20 employees after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, according to reports from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Bloomberg and other news outlets.

It's the latest development in a controversy centering on allegations that the ride-service company has tolerated harassment of and discrimination against its female employees.

The L.A. Times, citing an anonymous source, reported the firings were disclosed in a companywide announcement.

The law firm Perkins Coie, which was hired to assist former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s firm Covington & Burling in its investigation of Uber’s workplace practices, told Uber’s more than 12,000 employees Tuesday that it looked into 215 complaints and took no action in 100 instances, the person said.

Employees were told that those fired were terminated for a range of reasons, including sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

The New York Times, also citing an anonymous source, said the announcement was part of an all-hands meeting Tuesday in San Francisco. Uber itself had no immediate comment on the reports.

Uber hired Holder in February to investigate allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination after Susan J. Fowler, a former site reliability engineer for the company, wrote a blog post about the company's response to her claims that she'd been propositioned by her manager.

"Upper management told me that he was 'a high performer' (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part," Fowler wrote.

In response to Fowler's account, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told employees that the company's move toward an independent review would be a move toward new workplace standards.

“What is driving me through all this is a determination that we take what’s happened as an opportunity to heal wounds of the past and set a new standard for justice in the workplace,” Kalanick wrote in the email.