A former Uber software engineer is suing the company, saying it fired her after she reported sexual harassment and discrimination.
In a lawsuit filed this week in San Francisco County Superior Court, Yingnan Li claims she was subjected to harassment, was denied equal pay and a promotion, and eventually was terminated after complaining about her treatment. She also said that because she is a Chinese immigrant, her firing endangers her right to remain in the United States.
Li started working at the company after Uber recruited her away from Microsoft in June 2017, right at the time the ride-hailing giant was going through major changes and co-founder Travis Kalanick was forced to step down as CEO after another female engineer, Susan Fowler, wrote a blog post about harassment and sexism at the company.
Li was treated differently almost as soon as she started working at the company in 2017, according to the lawsuit. She said she was the only female engineer in her department and that her male colleagues would “look at her suggestively, moving their eyes slowly up and down” her body and “made her feel as if they were undressing her with their gaze.” In addition, she said that on “multiple occasions” her male colleagues would brush up against her and say it was an accident.
“Due to the substantial and pervasive culture of misogyny and harassment within the Company at all levels, Ms. Li had no recourse and learned quickly her best option was to play along,” the lawsuit states.
The San Francisco company, which is also facing a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last year, calls her claims baseless.
“The lawsuit filed this week by a disgruntled former employee is meritless, and we will vigorously defend ourselves,” an Uber spokesman said Thursday. “The majority of the allegations set forth in the complaint have already been thoroughly investigated, and there were no policy violations found.”
Li’s lawsuit also names two engineering managers who remain at Uber. Li accuses one of them of shouting at and cutting her off during meetings, removing her from group projects to ostracize her and assigning her secretarial and administrative tasks he did not assign to her male colleagues. She also said the same manager forbade her from using paid time off to go to an event the company’s recruitment team invited her to attend: a conference meant to showcase Uber’s commitment to diversity.
In addition, Li claims she was denied bonuses despite others praising her for her work. After she took her complaints to human resources in October, she said the company terminated a possible promotion. The next month, she said she was put on a performance improvement plan with “outrageous expectations.” That’s when she hired a lawyer. Uber fired her in March.
Li, who says she suffered emotional distress and physical symptoms including numbness on one side of her body, is seeking a jury trial. The lawsuit says she is entitled to compensatory damages, equitable relief, attorneys’ fees and costs.
Robert Ottinger, a lawyer for Li, said that after she was fired, Uber — which was helping her with her immigration case — shut down communications. He said he doesn’t know what will happen to her immigration status.
Staff writer Ethan Baron contributed to this report.
