Uber Files whistleblower Mark MacGann today accused the ridesharing company of “co-opting democracy” as he appealed to European lawmakers to reclassify the platform’s workers as employees in order to guarantee their rights.
The career lobbyist turned whistleblower told a parliamentary committee that Uber had misled the world about the benefits of the gig economy, paid academics to skew findings, swamped markets and “weaponized” drivers and customers in its own interests against elected officials.
MacGann was one of several speakers to address the European parliamentary hearing amid negotiations on a proposal to force companies to pay gig economy workers a minimum wage and provide access to other workers’ rights. He received a standing ovation, despite laying some of the blame for Uber’s practices on divisions within the European Union itself.
The Irishman, who led Uber’s efforts to lobby governments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 2014 to 2016, explained that his former company had exploited its vast influence to undercut drivers.
The Uber Files investigation is based on a cache of 124,000 company emails, personal text messages, strategy memos and other records leaked by MacGann that reveal an ‘ask for forgiveness, not permission’ culture at Uber. The records show that between 2014 and 2016, Uber entered new European markets in violation of local laws, lobbied politicians around the world for favors, deployed technological tools to thwart legal probes and made...
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