Driver sues Uber Eats as ‘racially discriminatory’ app prevented him from work

A black Uber Eats driver has received a payout after “racially discriminatory” artificial intelligence prevented him from being able to do his job.

Pa Edrissa Manjang began working for Uber Eats in 2019, but issues arose a few years later when Uber Eats introduced new facial recognition checks on workers using AI.

Every time Uber Eats workers logged on to start a shift, the Microsoft-powered app asked for verification by using facial recognition. However, issues arose in 2021, when the software repeatedly failed to recognise Pa Edrissa Manjang and after “careful consideration” Uber Eats said his account would be removed, due to “continued mismatches”.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission was concerned the artificial intelligence in the facial-recognition checks had deprived him of his income and funded his case alongside the App Drivers and Couriers Union.

The ADCU said the number of selfies Mr. Manjang had been asked for amounted to racial harassment.

The union told BBC News it was “working hard” to ensure workers’ rights were protected as “the pace of development of AI and machine-learning tools in the workplace accelerates”.

Mr. Manjang, who was reinstated and continues to work for Uber Eats, in Oxfordshire, said the out-of-court settlement marked the end of a “long and difficult” period for him.

His case “shines a spotlight” on the potential problems with AI, particularly for “low-paid workers in the gig economy”.

He hopes the decision will help strengthen “rights and protections of workers in relation to AI, particularly ethnic minorities”.

Baroness Falkner, who chairs the EHRC, said Mr. Manjang should never have had to sue Uber Eats to understand the opaque processes affecting his work.

“We are particularly concerned that Mr Manjang was not made aware that his account was in the process of deactivation, nor provided any clear and effective route to challenge the technology,” she said.

Microsoft has previously admitted its facial-recognition software works less well for people belonging to ethnic minorities.

What is discrimination?

If you are being treated unfairly or unfavourably compared to your colleagues because of who you are, you may have a discrimination claim.

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits employers from discriminating against employees because of the following protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnerships
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

What does workplace discrimination look like?

Discrimination in the workplace is not necessarily obvious. Please see below the different forms of discrimination which may present themselves in the workplace:

• Direct Discrimination – Treating a person less favourably because of one or more Protected Characteristics.
• Indirect Discrimination – There may be a workplace provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) which is not intended to be discriminatory but which has the effect of disadvantaging employees with a particular Protected Characteristic. For example, a policy that unfair disadvantages a group of employees with one of the Protected Characteristics.
• Harassment – Harassment occurs when an employee is subjected to unwanted conduct relating to one or more Protected Characteristic which has the purpose or effect of either violating the employee’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for the employee.
• Victimisation – Victimisation means being ‘punished’ for reporting something at work that you believe is unfair such as being discriminated against.

What should I do if I have been discriminated against?

If you believe that you are being treated unfairly at work because of one of the above protected characteristics, you may have a discrimination claim.

Please contact Oakwood Solicitors Ltd as soon as possible to speak to one of our employment advisors.

Further reading

Workplace discrimination – Oakwood Solicitors

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