4/4/21 Dodging Discrimination Law Costs Uber $1.1 Million

The Wolf of Wall Street looked like a good guy compared to the dingos who run Uber.

When a blind woman took the company to arbitration this year for abuses of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ride-hailing firm tried to push its responsibility onto the shoulders of individual drivers.

The drivers, Uber said, were the ones at fault for the 14 separate instances when Lisa Irving called for a ride for herself and her guide dog. She was denied rides, which affected her job, and she was verbally abused. One of the Uber charmers screamed at her and tried to get her out of his car in an area that the arbitrator described as "dangerous." Irving said she felt "Demeaned, humiliated, devalued, embarrassed, angered, frustrated and violated."

Uber tried to hide behind its "community guidelines," against denying rides to people with service animals. The guidelines were obviously designed to be a wall between Uber and rider lawsuits. The wall was a scrim. Anybody could see through it, even Ms. Irving.

Besides, Uber had already been sued over the service-animal issue, by the National Federation for the Blind, in 2016. In that case, Uber settled.

Uber demands that its customers submit complaints to binding arbitration. It's widely believed that arbitrators are friendlier to the companies who pay their fees than to those who bring complaints. Certainly, the expectation is that arbitration is more lenient with corporate sins than the court system.

Not this time. "Whether its drivers are employees or independent contractors, Uber is nonetheless subject to the ADA as a result of its contractual relationship with its drivers," the arbitrator stated in the document awarding Irving $1.1 million, which included $800,000 for legal expenses.

On Thursday, Irving's attorneys filed a petition to affirm the award in San Francisco Superior Court.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/business/uber-blind-passenger-arbitration-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1ZLAj43sqqqpVR4XbFlVBDeisbASJXEZmxBRZGRSBBDVDYbRPM_yLo5ZQ