Source: Netherlands Post English
This week, almost 550 female passengers have sued Uber accusing its drivers of having assaulting them. This includes rape, kidnapping, and physical harm in the United States. The complaint was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, California, and seeks damages, along with a jury trial.
These women in the suit alleged that they were victim to serious forms of harassment by the Uber drivers such as being sexually battered, sexually assaulted and raped. Moreover, the court filing indicated forms of harassment such as kidnapping, false imprisonment, stalking, and attacks in some way by the Uber drivers.
The founding partner of Slater Slater Schulman who is representing these women, Adam Slater gave a statement regarding the matter. He noted how the entire business model of Uber is ‘predicated’ on providing safe rides to the people. However, ride safety never came as a concern for them, and their growth came at the ‘expense of the safety’ of their passengers. Further, he said how the company has been rather slow in addressing this issue despite its acknowledgement.
“While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences,”
According to the lawsuit, the ride-hailing giant had been intentionally hiding information regarding its drivers regularly sexually assaulting women. Reportedly this was since 2014, and instead, Uber showed itself as a rather ‘safe mode of transportation.’ Moreover, it accuses that the platform of actively providing predators a place to find and harass women. In turn, it stated, by carrying out proper background checks on them or giving riders safety measures.
As specified by a recent US safety report from Uber, that incidents of sexual assault were 998 in number, with 141 reports of rape, just in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, the platform Uber received 3,824 reports of top five severe cases of sexual assault. Its first safety report detailing instances between 2017 and 2018 saw almost 6,000 reports connected to sexual assault.
On the other hand, a notable leaked trove of internal documents from Uber disclosed its dark side. Allegedly, it breached laws and lobbied governments in secret as it looked to expanding globally.
Various outlets accessed the ‘Uber Files’ last week which comprised more than 124,500 documents from 2013 t0 that from 2017. Reportedly, this data indicated how the ride-hailing giant attempted to ‘shore up support’ through discreet courting of presidents, prime minister, billionaires, oligarchs, along with media barons.
