A week after Uber CEO apologised for cultural failings at the company after a former employee alleged she was harassed and discriminated against, the ride-hailing firm has asked senior executive Amit Singhal to leave the company for failing to disclose a sexual harassment allegation during his tenure at Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Reuters reported that the move comes as the ride services company is investigating allegations of sexual harassment in its own organisation.
Earlier this month, a female former engineer at Uber said in a widely read blog post that managers and human resources officers at the company had not punished her manager after she reported his unwanted sexual advances, and even threatened her with a poor performance review.
Reuters quoted Uber spokesperson as saying Singhal, who was hired in January, did not disclose the allegations when Uber hired him, nor were they revealed by reference checks.
Singhal led Google’s search division, the financial powerhouse of Alphabet. He left Google about a year ago after 15 years at the company, saying he planned to focus on philanthropy. He announced his plan to join Uber in January, saying he would work closely with Kalanick on the company’s self-driving car program.
In a statement to Recode he denied the allegation of harassment but acknowledged a dispute with Google.
“Harassment is unacceptable in any setting. I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior,” Singhal wrote to Recode. “In my 20-year career, I’ve never been accused of anything like this before and the decision to leave Google was my own.”
