Uber report outlines new categories for sexual misconduct and assault

Uber
user.
Sergio Perez /
Reuters

• Uber detailed 21 new categories of sexual misconduct
  and assault it is going to adopt in its reporting.
• The report outlining the categories contains a
  “mix-and-match” exercise in which readers match creepy stories
  of misconduct and assault to the company’s new
  categories.
• Uber has come under fire in the past for it attitude
  toward sexual misconduct and assault.

Uber
released a document on Monday laying out how it is going to
categorise reports of sexual misconduct and assault in readiness
for a 2019 transparency report.

The report, which it calls a “taxonomy” of sexual misconduct and
assault, was released in partnership with the National Sexual
Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) and the Urban Institute.

Included in the 53-page document is a “mix and
match exercise” designed to show how reports of inappropriate
behaviour might be filtered into these new categories.

Stories from the perspective of riders and drivers are given to
be matched with one of the 21 new categories. The stories
themselves are fictional, but are “informed by the authors’
experience reviewing actual reports.” In other words, they’re
rooted in real-life cases.

Here is the Uber exercise in full:

National
Sexual Violence Resource Center/Urban
Institute/Uber

A Medium article, penned by Uber’s Chief Legal Officer Tony
West and NSVRC executive Kristen Houser, explained why Uber
believes these categories are necessary for combatting sexual
misconduct and assault.

“Clear categories lead to counting consistently, which allows
companies to respond more effectively to each report of sexual
misconduct,” it said.

Uber has previously been criticised for its approach to sexual
misconduct and assault.

Fourteen women who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Uber
drivers are currently suing the company, and
in April demanded that Uber release them from private
arbitration, which they said was silencing them. Uber

got rid of forced arbitration for sexual misconduct in May.

Prior to having its licence revoked and then temporarily restored
in London, Uber argued it was under no obligation to report
allegations of rider or driver sexual harassment, violence, or
other crimes to the police, but
changed this policy in February.

Furthermore, the ride-hailing company received 47 complaints of
sexual harassment as part of its investigation into inappropriate
workplace incidents last year.

Read more:

Uber court document reveals the scale of sexual assault and
dangerous driving allegations against its drivers

West
told Bloomberg that releasing the report was not an easy
decision to make as the company’s top lawyer. “The chief legal
officer is usually the guy that is minimizing risk, not courting
it, but I feel very strongly that this was the right decision,”
he said.

Tina Tchen, cofounder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund and an
adviser to Uber,
also told Bloomberg that Uber is expecting to see an increase
in reporting because it is tracking misconduct and assault more
carefully.

“Reports are going to rise because right now this is vastly
under-reported… You will see more people reporting. That
counter-intuitively will be a good sign,” she said.