Uber fires 20 employees after investigation into complaints

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Uber announced Tuesday it had taken action by firing 20 employees after a public relations firestorm over sexual harassment and discrimination allegations.

Sources told ABC7 the employees fired included senior executives who worked out of the ridesharing company's San Francisco offices. "It shows me that Uber is trying to make good on its promises from earlier in the year," CNET Reporter Dara Kerr said.

Kerr covers Uber and says the company's actions may be what current employees want to see. "Worry that the company has this bad reputation and they want to make it better, that's what I've heard from people within the company," Kerr said.

RELATED: Uber CEO calls for investigation after report of sexual harassment

This all started back in February when a former Uber engineer, Susan Fowler, wrote a blog post alleging sexual harassment and discrimination during her time at the tech giant. As a result, Uber commissioned two investigations.

For the first, Uber hired attorneys at Perkins Coie LLP to look into the sexual harassment claims, which eventually expanded to include 215 claims to human resources including discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying.

Out of the cases examined, 100 employees were cleared of wrongdoing; 31 received additional HR training; 7 people were given final warnings; 57 employees and cases are still under review, and 20 people were fired.

"It's not an anomaly," Greg Morton, CEO of Northern California Human Resources Association. Morton says, he's seen a lot of large companies with HR problems similar to Uber.

"If you have to answer to stakeholders about profit and people that are not playing nice are people that are profitable, maybe your patience is a little longer with those folks," Morton said.

According to Uber they hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to lead their second investigation into company culture. The results of the investigation were recently submitted to Uber's board, and the details will likely be revealed soon.

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