Liu v. Uber Technologies Inc.

Background

Thomas Liu brought a Title VII employment-discrimination case against Uber Technologies Inc. The complaint referred to a policy of terminating drivers based solely on customer ratings. The court said a driver might be able to plead a claim that such a policy has a disproportionate harmful effect on drivers of color, or a claim that Uber intentionally discriminated, depending on what Uber knew about possible racial differences in customer ratings.

The complaint also asserted that Uber drivers should be treated as employees under federal law. The court noted that Liu relied almost exclusively on cases applying California law, and said he might need to better support his employee-classification argument under federal law.

Rulings

The court denied the motion to dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. It held that Liu’s May 2, 2016 letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission satisfied the requirement to file a charge within 300 days of his termination.

The court denied Uber’s motion to strike the class allegations as premature.

The court nevertheless dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. It found the complaint too sparse and poorly drafted because, although it referred generally to “social science research,” it did not cite or describe research findings or other facts supporting the assertion that drivers of color were disproportionately harmed by Uber’s rating system. The dismissal was with leave to amend, and the court gave Liu 21 days from the order’s date to file an amended complaint. Uber’s response was due 14 days after that.

The court continued the initial case-management conference to April 21, 2021, and required a joint case-management statement by April 14, 2021. Judge Vince Chhabria signed the order.