Mark MacGann, the whistleblower behind the so-called Uber Files, said on Wednesday that the ride-hailing company seemed to be taking steps toward improving its work culture, but that its business model was still "absolutely" unsustainable.
The Guardian and Le Monde newspapers reported in July that
Uber broke laws and secretly lobbied politicians as part of an aggressive drive
to expand into new markets from 2013 to 2017.
MacGann, who led Uber's lobbying efforts to win over
governments, identified himself as the source who leaked the more than 124,000
company files.
MacGann said he decided to speak out because he believed
Uber knowingly infringed laws and misled people about the benefits to drivers
of the company's gig-economy model.
Uber said in July, in response to the Guardian and Le Monde
reports: "We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is
clearly not in line with our present values."
MacGann said Uber's current CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, and his
executive team "have done a lot of good things, but they have so, so far
to go."
When asked for a comment, an Uber spokesman on Wednesday
referred Reuters to a 2020 New York Times opinion piece by Khosrowshahi in
which he said "our current employment system is outdated and unfair."
Khosrowshahi had said gig workers would lose the flexibility
they have today if they became employees and that rides would be more
expensive. The CEO wrote that workers want both flexibility and benefits and
added that new laws are required to help them.
"I'm proposing that gig economy companies be required
to establish benefits funds which give workers cash that they can use for the
benefits they want, like health insurance or paid time off," Khosrowshahi
wrote in the op-ed.
"My message to Uber is: 'you've done well, (but) you
can do it so much better (because) the current model is absolutely not
sustainable,'" MacGann told a news conference during Europe's largest tech
conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon.
He said Uber recently reiterated that the "core of its
business model is independent contractors, since everybody wants to be
self-employed, everybody wants flexibility."
He said the facts, however, contradict this view as there
are Uber drivers suing the company in various countries to "have a basic
minimum of social protection such as sick pay."
"Uber is pumping tens of millions of dollars in Europe,
United States, other parts of the world fighting legislation," he said. -
Reuters
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