A UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER 4 UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER 4 UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER 4 UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER 4 UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER Unethical Practices of Uber Name of the Student Na

This portrays a severe violation of morality and ethics by the companies, instead of giving the victims some sympathy and justice it is trying to hide its face and mend its way by settling the issues behind closed doors. Several woman across the United States have come together to represent the women across the globe who have been assaulted or have experience certain sexual assault issues in Uber with an anticipation of influencing the company to reform and reshape its passenger protection policy for providing better service to the passengers, especially to women.

Running head: UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER
Unethical Practices of Uber
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER
Area of focus:
The taxicab company Uber is pursuing women who were sexually assaulted by the Uber
drivers to settle their claims and grievances through alternative dispute resolution and not by
moving the court. This gives a clear picture of the company’s unethical approach to the assault
victims by silencing them and protecting itself from the public eye and controversy.
Topic:
The unethical practices of Uber pertaining to customer service are an alarming issue.
Sexual abuse and violence inflicted by the Uber drivers towards women passengers is a growing
menace.
The company, instead of taking severe steps against such drivers, taking up a sympathetic
approach and spreading consciousness, it is forcing the victims of sexual assault to resolve their
issues outside the purview of the court.
Ethical issue:
The attorneys of the company are depending on legal a mechanism, which has already
faced immense scrutiny and controversy in the Silicon Valley over the past years. Sexually
abused victims are joining in the ‘Me Too Movement’, which has created a sensation around the
world in different sectors, be it a workplace or a film industry. Lawyers of Uber have put in
arbitration clauses in the terms and condition in the company’s dispute resolution policy that
prevents customers, especially the victims of sexual harassment to move the court with a strong
lawsuit (Harding, Kandlikar & Gulati, 2016). They are redirected to mitigate matters behind
closed doors and go home with meager compensation money. This has been the idea of the

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company to keep itself away from legal suits that involves a great hassle, huge deal of expense
and time investment.
This portrays a severe violation of morality and ethics by the companies, instead of
giving the victims some sympathy and justice it is trying to hide its face and mend its way by
settling the issues behind closed doors. This is an infringement of human rights and the law of
natural justice. Several woman across the United States have come together to represent the
women across the globe has been assaulted or have experience certain sexual assault issues in
Uber with an anticipation of influencing the company to reform and reshape its passenger
protection policy for providing better service to the passengers, especially to women. However
the company has registered a motion that argues about the terms and conditions that a rider
agrees to when signing up for the ride-share service which takes away their right to file a lawsuit
against the company (Buckley, 2017). The attorneys of the victims demand that their client
deserves a trial irrespective of the fact that they have agreed to the implied terms and conditions
that comes along with the application. The authorities are of the view that the taxicab company
Uber needs to acknowledge the occurrence of the issues and take immediate action. The
attorneys are of the view that the company is trying to hide its face so that it does not come up in
front of the public eye and lose its goodwill. The lawyers further mentions that the company’s
policy to pursue the victims to settle the matter through arbitration prevents the common people
from knowing about the severity and frequency of rape and sexual assault done by Uber drivers
which has become rampant (Levin, 2018). The implied terms and conditions of the Uber app that
comes along with the non-disclosure agreement, forces the victims to remain silent about the
abuses that was done to them by Uber employees (Dills & Mulholland, 2018). This makes the
company vicariously liable for the wrongful act of its employees.

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It is shocking that people are not talking about these horrific incidences, as they are still
not aware of the details about the matters as the company is keeping itself away from the news.
The people who were abused by the Uber drivers and those who are involved in class action suits
against the company want the common people to know about the inefficiency of Uber to
recognize its shortcomings towards the protection of the customers. The victims and the activists
demand that the company should acknowledge its inefficiency and make better reforms and
changes to its structural issue that aids social problems like rape and assault.
Who is harmed by the ethical violation?
The customers, especially women are directly harmed by such unethical approaches of
Uber (Feeney & companies Uber, 2015). In addition, the company is not letting these women
voice their grievances against the company, and instead forcing them to settle the matter by the
way of mediation. This is violating the basic human rights (McIver, 2017).
Thesis Statement:
It is ascertained that the taxicab company Uber is trying to hide its face behind closed
doors and trying to retain its goodwill by settling sexual assault and harassment issues by way of
alternative dispute resolution (Freeman & Parmar, 2018). This can be proved by way of several
instances that have occurred over a period throughout the United States of America and beyond.
Example 1:
Citing one of the cases where an Uber driver from Miami raped one of his customers who
were intoxicated at that time. An Uber driver allegedly assaulted another woman in Los Angeles
who fell asleep in the car while commuting. A woman from San Francisco reported that an Uber

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driver pushed her into an apartment and groped her. In all these cases, the victims were led to
settle the matter arbitrarily by way of arbitration and offered to meager amount of compensation
as consolation ("Seven More Women Join Uber Sexual-Assault Lawsuit", 2018).
Example 2:
One of the former employees of Uber, Susan Fowler's viral account of sexual abuse and
harassment proves to be a perfect picture of the abusive and uncouth male dominated tech
industry. This case was an eye-opening example for most corporate houses to remove the forced
arbitration agreement at workplace. Ms. Fowler’s version of the sexual harassment by her
supervisor was a shame on the company’s reputation that claims to maintain a pleasant
workplace environment and high annual turnover (Wakabayashi, 2018).
Example 3:
Veena Dubal, a professor and a practicing advocate who has represented some of the
alleged Uber drivers and some drivers who had some claims against the company, said that she
was unable to move further with the case as the drivers being the employee of Uber were
silenced by the company with the aid of settlement agreements (Isaac, 2018).
These examples are clear picture that the company is trying to save its market reputation
by suppressing the immoral and unethical issues under the cloak of arbitration.
Stakeholders:
The victims had to go through traumatic experiences out of such horrible incidents. There
has been several reported case of self-harm and suicidal attempts of the victims who could not
come out of their traumatic past. The company’s failure to publicly acknowledge its liability and

5UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF UBER
responsibility of the harassments, assaults and rapes have affected and shook the victims and
their self-esteems largely.
The CEO of the company, Mr. Travis Kalanick stated in response to the alleged unethical
approach of the company that they are being intimated about such issues for the first time. He
claimed to have employed the Chief of the Human Resource team, Liane Hornsey to look into
the matter and conduct a thorough enquiry pertaining to such allegations.
Resolution:
The victims are now coming out from their shields with the help of ‘Me Too Movement’
to share their traumatic experiences. Attorneys are approaching the courts irrespective of the
already agreed implied terms and conditions on the grounds of violation of human rights. In
addition, women are encouraged to speak up about their sad, traumatic stories and disseminate
the message of women empowerment all over the globe.

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Resources
Buckley, C. (2017). An examination of taxi apps and public policy regulation.
Dills, A. K., & Mulholland, S. E. (2018). Ride‐Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime. Southern
Economic Journal, 84(4), 965-991.
Feeney, M., & companies Uber, R. (2015). Is ridesharing safe?.
Freeman, R. E., & Parmar, B. (2018). Which Rules Are Worth Breaking?. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 59(3), 1-4.
Harding, S., Kandlikar, M., & Gulati, S. (2016). Taxi apps, regulation, and the market for taxi
journeys. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 88, 15-25.
Isaac, M. (2018). Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee. Retrieved
from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/business/uber-sexual-harassment-
investigation.html
Levin, S. (2018). Uber accused of silencing women who claim sexual assault by drivers.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/15/uber-class-action-
lawsuit-sexual-assault-rape-arbitration
McIver, C. (2017). The customer always has rights. Kill Your Darlings, (Jul-Dec 2017), 58.
Seven More Women Join Uber Sexual-Assault Lawsuit. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.thedailybeast.com/seven-more-women-join-uber-sexual-assault-lawsuit

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Wakabayashi, D. (2018). Former Uber Engineer’s Lawsuit Claims Sexual Harassment. Retrieved
from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/technology/uber-sexual-harassment-
lawsuit.htm