Uber will no longer silence victims of sexual attack

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Uber is altering how it deals with attack claims.


Robyn Beck/ AFP/GettyImages

Uber on Tuesday revealed a significant shift in the method it deals with sexual attack and harassment cases, which will put an end to the business’s culture of silencing victims.

Starting right away, consumers with attack claims versus Uber chauffeurs will no longer be required to pursue their cases through arbitration. If they want they will now have the ability to have their cases heard in open court and they will no longer be required to sign nondisclosure contracts. Victims of declared sexual attack still will not have the ability to bring class action fits versus the business, nevertheless.

In a post entitled “Turning the lights on,” the ride-hailing business’s primary legal officer, Tony West, described that attack victims will now have an option of locations and procedures when it comes to having their cases heard. “We have learned it’s important to give sexual assault and harassment survivors control of how they pursue their claims,” he stated.

Uber will likewise release a a security openness report that will consist of information on sexual attacks and other events that take place through its platform.

It’s a substantial about-turn for the business, which previously has actually silenced victims by demanding obligatory arbitration and privacy arrangements. But for critics of the business, it’s long past due. Mounting political and regulative pressure over the previous year has actually required the business to take a long, difficult take a look at the method it handles problems versus chauffeurs and how it discusses its security record in public.

Last September Uber lost its license to run in London, among its essential markets beyond the United States, in part due to issues over how it managed sexual attack claims. At the start of May, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, composed a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi getting in touch with him to launch reported sexual attack survivors from their personal arbitration contracts and let them take legal action against the business in court. He stated such contracts “silence” victims.

In his post, West stated that some attack survivors want privacy, however acknowledged that “divulging the details of what happened in a sexual assault or harassment should be up to the survivor, not us.”

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