Uber to probe sexual harassment charges

The chief executive of Uber Technologies Inc has ordered an “urgent investigation” into claims of sexual harassment at the ride-hailing service made by a former employee.

Travis Kalanick said on Sunday he asked his chief human resources officer to probe the accusations described in a blog post by Susan Fowler, who worked as an engineer at Uber from November 2015 to December 2016. Kalanick called her allegations “abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in.”

Fowler wrote in a post published on Sunday that she was subjected to sexual advances but, when she reported that to human resources officials, they declined to punish the offender. Fowler said her manager used the firm’s chat software to try “to get me to have sex with him.” She took screenshots of the messages and reported him. Management said “they wouldn’t feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part,” she wrote.