Alexander obtained medical records of a woman passenger who had been raped by a Uber driver during a ride in India, and shared them with top execs
A top Uber executive, who obtained the medical records of a woman passenger who had been raped by a driver contracted to the company during a ride in India, has been shown the door, says a Recode report citing unidentified sources.
Eric Alexander, President of Business for Asia Pacific at Uber
As per this report, Eric Alexander, President of Business (Asia Pacific), obtained the documents and showed them to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and SVP Emil Michael. The records were later accessed by numerous other executives at Uber, added the report. This is highly unusual since they were records related to a criminal investigation.
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This sexual harassment is one of the 215 claims that Uber’s law firms –Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling –are investigating. The list include sexism and sexual harassment inside the company as well as by its drivers. Around 20 employees have already been fired as part of the probe, and nearly 100 others are awaiting their fate. Some have already been let off with a warning while some others underwent mandatory training, the report said.
The rape incident happened back in December 2014 when a 27-year-old woman alleged that she had been violated by her Uber driver in New Delhi. As per reports, she got into the Uber cab in south Delhi’s posh Vasant Vihar neighbourhood and was raped on het way to her destination at a secluded location. A court found the driver guilty and handed him life imprisonment. While Uber apologised for the crime, the government imposed a ban on the company until June 2015.
The episode forced various on-demand taxi companies including its key rival Ola to institute rigorous driver vetting process. They also introduced additional security measures on their apps to avoid possible events.
Although Uber apologised, some of the top including Alexander were sceptic about the claims made by the victim. They had even suspected Ola’s role in the entire episode.
Recode added that that Alexander carried around the document for about a year before other executives obtained the report and destroyed his copy.
Early this year, the Transport Department asked online cab aggregators including Uber and Ola to stop car-pooling services in Bangalore. According to the department, car-pooling by aggregators is a direct violation of the the Motor Vehicles Act of India.
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