Uber Fires 20 Employees After Probe Into Workplace Culture

Embattled ride-hailing company Uber has fired 20 employees as part of an investigation into the company's culture.

Uber told employees on Tuesday that as part of an investigation into harassment claims, 20 people had been fired, the company said Tuesday. A law firm looking into 215 human resources claims took no action in 100 of the cases, sent 31 employees into counseling and gave seven employees final warnings. The firm is still investigating 57 of the cases. Bloomberg Technology was the first to report the news.

A breakdown provided by Uber about the 215 claims showed that 54 of the cases were related to discrimination, 47 were related to sexual harassment and another 45 were about unprofessional behavior. Another 33 cases had to do with bullying, 19 were simply classified as "harassment," another 13 had to do with retaliation and three were related to physical security. Just one case related to wrongful termination.

The investigation comes after a former employee at Uber, Susan Fowler, wrote a widely shared blog post detailing claims of sexual harassment while she worked at the company.

A second independent investigation into the company's workplace culture is being conducted by former United States Attorney General Eric Holder who now works at the law firm Covington & Burling. The report expected from that investigation has not yet been released.

Following Fowler's blog post, a series of scandals plagued the company, including a federal inquiry by the Department of Justice for the use of the software "Greyball,"which the company reportedly used to evade local regulators in municipalities where it was not allowed to operate.

Image: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick by Adam Tinworth used under Flickr Creative Commons