1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,680
Speaker 1: Michael Best with Jean Grasso. Susan Fowler is an engineer

2
00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:07,200
Speaker 1: who worked at Uber. On Sunday, Fowler, who recently left

3
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,960
Speaker 1: the company, posted on her blog an account of sexual

4
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,080
Speaker 1: harassment against her, alleging that her boss at Uber tried

5
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:14,920
Speaker 1: to have sex with her and that when she reported it,

6
00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: the company told her it would not be doing anything

7
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,919
Speaker 1: about it. Uber CEO Travis Klanic issued a statement calling

8
00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,400
Speaker 1: the allegations abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and

9
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,400
Speaker 1: believes in, and the company has now hired former Attorney

10
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:29,840
Speaker 1: General Eric Holder to lead an independent review of the

11
00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,840
Speaker 1: allegations UH and also about diversity and inclusion issues at Uber.

12
00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,960
Speaker 1: More broadly, Fowler's accusations are the latest in a line

13
00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,560
Speaker 1: of claims by women that their sideline in Silicon Valley's

14
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,400
Speaker 1: male dominated culture. Here to talk with us about this

15
00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:45,720
Speaker 1: situation is Michael sell Me, a professor at George Washington

16
00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 1: University Law School. Michael um so Ms. Fowler writes this

17
00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:56,360
Speaker 1: blog post, what what is she detailing? Happened during the

18
00:00:56,360 --> 00:01:01,120
Speaker 1: course of her time at Uber. UH daily agencies detailing

19
00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,280
Speaker 1: or you know as you mentioned are similar to a

20
00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,360
Speaker 1: lot of UH allegations that have been coming up recently,

21
00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:15,000
Speaker 1: um in the listen since she's alleging imparting egregious sexual harassment.

22
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,560
Speaker 1: But equally important, I think the for Uber where they

23
00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,240
Speaker 1: have really moved quite quickly on is the fact that

24
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,080
Speaker 1: they told her specifically or supersized stores specifically, that they

25
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,640
Speaker 1: would do nothing about it, So they were they were

26
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: not concerned about these allegations at all, Michael. There have

27
00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,200
Speaker 1: been surveys. There was one in by the Elephant in

28
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,839
Speaker 1: the Valley that found that six of women in tech

29
00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:44,480
Speaker 1: have experienced unwanted sexual advances from colleagues. There have been

30
00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:46,920
Speaker 1: there's been a lot on social media, a lot of

31
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,480
Speaker 1: different claims. What is there about tech or is there

32
00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,640
Speaker 1: something about tech that makes it more susceptible. There's probably

33
00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:58,640
Speaker 1: a couple of different things. Whether it makes it more

34
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,680
Speaker 1: susceptible or not to an industry, that's hard to say.

35
00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,800
Speaker 1: But I think with respect to tech tech um UH,

36
00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:09,880
Speaker 1: it's clearly been a male dominated UH industry. It's also

37
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:14,080
Speaker 1: filled with a lot of younger people UM. And it's

38
00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:18,000
Speaker 1: certainly when the companies began, or when so Colon Valley

39
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 1: was going, they were not as concerned about legal restraints

40
00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:24,440
Speaker 1: as a lot of other more mature industries would have been.

41
00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:26,960
Speaker 1: So I think there was a bravado among a lot

42
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,119
Speaker 1: of the people in the industry. Um uh that may

43
00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:35,480
Speaker 1: be not so prominent in other UH industries. UM and

44
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:40,839
Speaker 1: then uh um the use UH possibly might be part

45
00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,360
Speaker 1: of it too. But I think it's you know, a

46
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 1: combination of things that has made the tech world so

47
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:49,560
Speaker 1: susceptible to these allegations. Michael, what do you expect that

48
00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,080
Speaker 1: Attorney General Holder is going to end up doing in

49
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:56,639
Speaker 1: this investigation? Well, that's always hard to know. Um. These

50
00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,240
Speaker 1: allegations were just reported. As as far as i'm there

51
00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,840
Speaker 1: has not been a formal complaint filed, and so he

52
00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:06,840
Speaker 1: would probably take the place of well would would do

53
00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,920
Speaker 1: what you know, the UC or another agency might do

54
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,960
Speaker 1: in terms of the investigation, UM, with interviews and the like.

55
00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:16,720
Speaker 1: And I presume he will come up with a report

56
00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,000
Speaker 1: fairly quickly, would be my guest to that all this

57
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:23,880
Speaker 1: will move, you know, quite quickly. It's it may seem

58
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,200
Speaker 1: unusual that a lawsuit hasn't been filed yet, or that

59
00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:33,000
Speaker 1: she hasn't gone outside the agency rather posting on a blog.

60
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,480
Speaker 1: What does that tell you it is unusual? Um? And

61
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:38,200
Speaker 1: the fact that the blog was the way that she

62
00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:43,360
Speaker 1: chose to uh make these allegations public is highly unusual.

63
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,440
Speaker 1: Whether it's um, you know, there was recently the Fox

64
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:53,000
Speaker 1: News allegations that hit the news very quickly and settled

65
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,520
Speaker 1: very quickly. And I think maybe what you're seeing as

66
00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,080
Speaker 1: a strategy that bringing public attention to these allegations UM

67
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,600
Speaker 1: is the quick this way to a settlement. Well, Michael,

68
00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:05,600
Speaker 1: when you look at the kinds of allegations she's making here,

69
00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:10,440
Speaker 1: what what is it that Uber should have done. Well,

70
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: certainly they should have had a plan in place, which

71
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,240
Speaker 1: they may have formally had when most businesses do for

72
00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:21,320
Speaker 1: their employees to report harassment and to report harassment uh

73
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,039
Speaker 1: generally to the human resources officer as opposed to supervisors.

74
00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 1: There should have been an investigation of those and internal

75
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,800
Speaker 1: investigation of those allegations, UM. And then you know, consistent

76
00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:36,479
Speaker 1: with then investigation, there should have been some determination of

77
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,560
Speaker 1: the merits on med and if they proved to be

78
00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,440
Speaker 1: true accurate, uh, then there certainly should have been some

79
00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:46,080
Speaker 1: discipline for the offending party. And it sounds like they

80
00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:49,159
Speaker 1: skipped all of those steps. Well, our thanks to Michael

81
00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,919
Speaker 1: sell Me, a professor at George Washington University Law School

82
00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,680
Speaker 1: for being here on Bloomberg Law. Coming up on Bloomberg Law,

83
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,400
Speaker 1: will be talking about a decision by a federal magistrate

84
00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,200
Speaker 1: which refused to give the government a warrant that would

85
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:05,479
Speaker 1: force people to compel to use their fingerprints to open

86
00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,000
Speaker 1: their cell phones, even though there was a warrant to

87
00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,880
Speaker 1: search a computer on the on the premises when the

88
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:14,279
Speaker 1: police got there. The police also wanted to be able

89
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,560
Speaker 1: to force anyone who had a cell phone, uh that

90
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:20,159
Speaker 1: would require their fingerprint to use their fingerprints to open

91
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,520
Speaker 1: it up, and a judge said that would violate their

92
00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,320
Speaker 1: constitutional rights and he was not going to issue it. Uh,

93
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,479
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about that decision coming up straight

94
00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:29,600
Speaker 1: ahead on Bloomberg Glove