Uber Whistleblower Claims ‘Totally Unsustainable’ Business Model Following Company’s Efforts to Improve Work Culture
Mark MacGann, the whistleblower behind the so-called Uber Files, said Wednesday that the ride-hailing company appears to be taking steps to improve its work culture, but its business model still “completely” unsustainable.
The Guardian and Le Monde newspapers reported in July that Uber broke the law and secretly lobbied politicians as part of an aggressive push to expand into new markets between 2013 and 2017.
MacGann, who leads Uber’s lobbying efforts to win over governments, claims to be the source that leaked more than 124,000 company records.
MacGann said he decided to speak up because he believes Uber is intentionally breaking the law and misleading people about the interests of drivers in the company’s contract economy model.
Uber said in July, in response to the Guardian and Le Monde reports: “We do not and will not excuse past behavior that is clearly inconsistent with our current values. “
MacGann said Uber’s current CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, and his executive team “have done a lot of good, but they still have to do so so far.”
When asked for comment, an Uber spokesman on Wednesday referred Reuters to Reuters with an article about Khosrowshahi’s 2020 New York Times views, in which he said “the current employment system of we’re outdated and unfair.”
Khosrowshahi has said that contract workers will lose the flexibility they have today if they become employees and that trips will be more expensive. The CEO writes that workers want both flexibility and benefits and adds that new legislation is required to help them.
“I’m proposing that contract economy companies be required to set up welfare funds that 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 did well, (but) you can do it much better (because) the current model is completely unsustainable’,” MacGann said at a press conference. during Europe’s largest technology conference, Web Summit, in Lisbon.
He said Uber recently reiterated that “the core of their business model is independent contractors, because everyone wants to be in business, everyone wants flexibility.”
However, he said the truth contradicts this view because there are Uber drivers suing the company in various countries over “having basic minimum social protection like sickness pay”.
“Uber is pumping tens of millions of dollars in Europe, the United States, other parts of the world against the law,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
