Uber Loses Bid to Make Driver Arbitrate Re-Opened Bias Charge

Uber Technologies Inc. failed to block a Pennsylvania regulator from reopening its investigation of a former driver’s race discrimination by pointing to the driver’s employment arbitration agreement.

US Supreme Court precedent draws a clear distinction between lawsuits and the bias charges workers need to file with an administrative agency before suing, and employers can’t use employee arbitration agreements to deprive agencies of their investigative powers, Judge John F. Murphy of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said. Though crediting the ride-hailing giant for trying “something creative,” Murphy said “prevailing legal authority forbids that particular tactic.”

It ...