Federal officials in the US are investigating allegations that Uber is systematically paying women less than men in a new discrimination investigation.
Spearheaded by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the investigation into the company's practices, which includes whether they discriminated against women during the hiring process, began nearly a year ago in August 2017, reports The New York Times.
The ride share service appears to be stalling in the public eye in its attempts to reroute after last year's news of a toxic workplace culture including allegations of harassment, retaliation, and discrimination. Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has apologised for this predecessor's mistakes and told Fortune he takes "sole responsibility."
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When reached for comment, Uber's spokesperson told Refinery 29: "We are continually improving as a company and have proactively made a lot of changes in the last 18 months, including implementing a new salary and equity structure based on the market, overhauling our performance review process, publishing Diversity & Inclusion reports, and rolling out diversity and leadership trainings to thousands of employees globally."
News of sexism and sexual harassment at Uber is far from breaking. A former engineer at the company, Susan Fowler, made headlines at the start of last year with her brutally honest blog post highlighting the shortcomings of the company which spurred on an internal investigation looking into company culture. Earlier this month, Uber's head of HR, Liane Hornsey, who was originally tasked with turning around internal issues, resigned.
The time frame for the allegations has not been disclosed, so whether the complaints have continued after Uber's attempts at improvement is unclear. What is clear is that Uber has a long road ahead as it attempts to recoup from yet another dent in it's public image.