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A former Uber driver has filed a federal class action lawsuit against the ridesharing company claiming its driver rating system is vulnerable to racial discrimination. And since Uber can fire drivers over bad ratings, that means drivers can be subjected to racial discrimination in their employment.
Tied up in the argument is the driver’s assertion that Uber drivers are employees afforded employment protections, and not classified as independent contractors.
The former driver filed the class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, accusing Uber of violating Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act. It is unclear how many potential Class Members the case might include, but the lead plaintiff is seeking the court’s approval to represent all non-white Uber drivers who were terminated because of low passenger ratings.
“Uber’s use of this system to determine driver terminations constitutes race discrimination, as it is widely recognized that customer evaluations of workers are frequently racially biased,” the class action lawsuit argues. “Indeed, Uber itself has recognized the racial bias of its own customers.”
The lead plaintiff is seeking monetary damages and wants the court to stop Uber from using the driver rating system to decide whether to terminate drivers from the app.
After an Uber ride has been completed, the passenger is prompted to rate the driver through the Uber app. The rating is based on a five-star scale designed to flag problem drivers. If a driver’s average star rating falls below a certain level, they are at risk of being “deactivated” on the app, meaning they are no longer assigned work.
According to a report from National Public Radio, an Uber spokesman declined to comment on how passenger ratings factor into a driver’s continued employment, or not, but did say “when riders give a driver a low rating, the company asks for more information to determine if bias played any role.”
The former driver behind the new class action lawsuit is “Asian and from Hawaii and speaks with a slight accent,” he said. While working for Uber, he “noticed passengers appearing hostile to him, which appeared to him to be a result of racial discrimination. … He also experienced riders asking where he was from in an unfriendly way.”
The plaintiff says he was terminated from Uber in October 2015, when his rating fell below 4.6, which he says was due to racial discrimination. Therefore, his termination was itself racial discrimination, he claims.
“Continued use of its star rating system to determine driver terminations is racially discriminatory, both because it has a disparate impact on minority drivers and because Uber’s continued use of this star rating system constitutes intentional discrimination against minority drivers,” the class action argues.
The former driver who is now suing first complained about the situation to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, a news report published online by Fortune magazine said. The commission failed to make a determination about the allegations, but authorized the former driver to take his case to court in August of this year.
A Fortune reporter reached an Uber spokesperson and asked for the company’s reaction to the class action lawsuit. The spokesperson called the case a flimsy one, the magazine reported, and said Uber “has greatly reduced bias for both drivers and riders, who now have fairer, more equitable access to work and transportation than ever before.”
To make his argument against Uber stronger, the former driver who filed the class action lawsuit says the court should consider him and all other Uber drivers as employees who are due specific protections under state and federal law – not independent contractors, as Uber has said they are.
Uber drivers, after all, are essential to the company’s operations and Uber controls their work, not only by assigning them fares, but by retaining the ability to terminate them at least in part according to their driver ratings, the class action lawsuit says.
The question of whether drivers for ridesharing apps and other companies rooted in the gig economy are actual employees or independent contractors has been taking up more time and space in state and federal courtrooms across the nation in recent months. The crux of most of those cases has been the matter of employee wages and benefits, and whether gig workers are entitled to them.
A California state appeals court recently upheld a lower court’s decision requiring Uber and fellow rideshare company Lyft to reclassify drivers as actual employees.
Have you ever worked as an Uber driver? Do you think you were subjected to racial discrimination by way of the driver rating system? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Shannon Liss-Riordan and Anne Kramer of Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C.
The Uber Racial Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 3:20-cv-07499, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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5 thoughts onFormer Uber Driver Claims Rating System Allows for Racial Discrimination
Yes. I have had fares to all but tell me they chose me because out of all “like me” I had a “friendly” or “engaging face”. Some people get in the car discussing your reviews and ratings.
As an independent driver and NOT an employee, it amazes me that they can deactivate you for ratings, they use the word deactivate for fired! Lets take this one step further, how about women drivers, we get discriminated against also, so not just racial, but gender discrimination also.
Please add me to this class action against UBER case 3:20-cv-07499. Thanks !
I actually worked for Lyft corporate and know for a fact the rating system was racially biased and discriminatory.
Add me