Transportation Company Uber Technologies Inc. is in the eye of the storm again as the company has revealed that it had erred in calculating the drivers' share of the payment from each ride in New York City. Now the company would be paying back the unpaid money to the drivers with a one-time restitution, it announced in a statement yesterday.
Drivers get their due
Over the years Uber has been the subject of plenty of controversies concerning the company's policies regarding payment to its drivers. Most notably, two months ago, the company admitted to paying drivers in Philadelphia less than what they deserved.
In this latest development, the company had stated that it had taken their cut from each ride before the taxes had been factored in and hence it cost the drivers in New York City an estimated total of $45 million in unpaid wages. Uber has now acknowledged the issue and has agreed to pay each driver a
Uber has now acknowledged the issue and has agreed to pay each driver a one-time restitution of $900 in order to make up for the lost wages. According to conservative estimates by the Independent Drivers' Guild in the city, there are around 50,000 drivers in the New York City, and entire back pay would amount to around $45 million at least. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance had filed a lawsuit as well in which it had made the same allegations against the ride-hailing company.
A rogue company?
The executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai welcomed the move, but she also went on to state that the whole money that they company actually should pay to its drivers is far more than the figure that is being quoted. She added, "Uber hasn’t just wrongly calculated its commission, it has been unlawfully taking the cost of sales tax and an injured worker surcharge right out of driver pay as opposed to charging it on top of the fare as the law requires."
Uber's head of operations in the United States, Rachel Holt said in a statement that the company is committed to paying the drivers the fair share of the revenues and that the company is trying everything in its power to to regain the trust of drivers.
It has been one of the most trying periods for the ride-hailing company valued at $70 billion due to a series of controversies that it has been involved in. CEO Travis Kalanick had been in the eye of a storm after a video emerged of him arguing with an Uber driver. Prior to that he had to step down from President Donald Trump's advisory board after a string of protests from both Uber users as well as drivers who did not take kindly to that decision.
