The current internal investigation, which is being headed up by Covington & Burling, former Attorney General Eric Holder’s law firm, has yet to have ay results made public.
In total, 215 claims were investigated by Perkins Coie, with 100 resulting in no action, Uber confirmed. Other investigations are ongoing. Bloomberg reports that seven employees have received a written warning. Despite this, Uber board member Arianna Huffington denied that sexism was a systemic problem at the transportation network.
Uber hired law firm Perkins Coie to conduct an internal investigation into the sexual harassment claims made against some of its employees.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick responded to the allegations by tweeting, “what’s described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in”. The company lost at least $1.27 billion in the first half of this year, according to Bloomberg News. Uber has also been blamed for having a seriously handicapped management structure wherein 3,000 of its 12,000 employees were in management position with many of them having no prior experience. The company fired 20 employees after an investigation of sexual harassment and other complaints.
Fowler’s blog post recounting her time at uber went viral, as it suggested deeply rooted issues within the company. Last week the company revealed that its chief financial officer Gautam Gupta was also leaving.
The company declined to comment further on the move to fire staff. Some saw it as a step in the right direction for Uber to fix its tarnished reputation. He added it was “not almost a complete and final surgery to heal a troubled culture”.
The company also has been plagued the past few months by the departures of executives, including its president as well as the heads of finance, growth, engineering, and policy and communications. The tense environment, it was reported, compelled some of Uber’s staff to hire their own attorneys. Holder has provided recommendations, based on the Perkins Coie findings, to Uber’s board, though it’s not yet clear what those are. An investigation was launched by Uber shortly after. Fowler wrote that on her first day at work her boss propositioned her in a series of messages and superiors ignored her complaints.