Uber says it will not install a tipping function – because the company believes tipping is unfair due to customers’ unconscious racial biases.

The company pointed to a 2008 Cornell University study that indicated ‘consumers of both races discriminate against black service providers by tipping them less than white service providers,’ the Boston Globe reported.

According to an Uber spokesperson who spoke to the Globe, giving Uber drivers tips could lead to wage disparities between white and black drivers.

The company also referred to a study by Bloomberg that indicated fares ending in the digits 0 and 5 resulted in smaller tips than fares ending in different digits.

Uber says it won’t install a tipping function in its app – on the basis that tipping is inherently unfair due to customers’ unconscious racial bias

Uber’s comments came as the company is looking to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by drivers who claim they’ve been misclassified as independent contractors

‘Race has nothing to do with it,’ Uber driver Keisha Seaton told the Globe.

‘It’s all about the service you provide, and if you provide top-notch, five-star service, you expect to be compensated as such.’

The company’s comments on tipping comes a week after it proposed to settle a high-profile class-action lawsuit to avoid reclassifying drivers as employees.

The settlement, which still must be approved by a SanFrancisco federal judge, provides for a $100 million payout todrivers, who could get as little $12 apiece or as much as a fewthousand dollars, depending on how many miles they drove.

The deal contains a number of caveats and contingencies,however, such as making $16 million of the payout to driversdependent on Uber Technologies Inc’s future valuationincreasing by 150 percent.

Moreover, the settlement’s non-monetary provisions are setto expire in two years, although Uber may choose to keep them inplace after that.

‘If there were going to be any teeth to this settlement,(the expiration) wouldn’t be there,’ said Christian Perea, anUber driver and writer for The Rideshare Guy, a popular blog andpodcast for drivers.

The sunset clause is a way for Uber to protect itself fromlong-term costs and annoyances, said Jack Schaedel, a labor andemployment attorney at the Dykema law firm, who is not involvedin the case. If any of the concessions ends up ‘being totallyunwieldy and Uber totally hates it, Uber can get rid of it,’ hesaid.

Uber declined to comment.

Uber is a car-for-hire company run by CEO Travis Kalanick, pictured. The company is looking to avoid classifying its drivers as employees and says tipping them is inherently unfair

A Rideshare Guy post explaining the terms of the settlementdrew more than 100 comments, many of them blasting the proposeddeal. Uber drivers expressed dissatisfaction for a range ofreasons, including that the settlement leaves unresolved thecentral issue of whether the law requires that drivers bequalified as employees.

Among the non-monetary provisions of the settlement are anew policy governing driver termination, including an appealsprocess for drivers terminated by Uber, and an agreement thatthe privately-held company will clarify that drivers do notautomatically receive gratuities from their fares and allow themto solicit tips.

The company also agreed to assist with the creation of adrivers’ association.

Lawyers representing Uber drivers in another class-actioncase have said in court filings they may object to thesettlement because drivers covered by it would no longer be ableto participate in their case, which challenges Uber’s allegeduse of credit reports during driver background checks.

The lawyers also object to Uber’s request to omit detailsfrom the settlement that would allow drivers to better evaluatethe deal.

The company has asked U.S. District Judge Edward Chen toredact key figures in court filings, including an estimate ofthe total potential value of drivers’ legal claims had they wonin a jury trial.

Some Uber drivers took issue with the company’s attempt to settle the class-action lawsuit brought against it

The redacted information ‘is critically important to anyanalysis of whether the proposed settlement is fundamentallyfair, adequate, and reasonable,’ the lawyers wrote in a courtfiling.

Uber has said the figures are trade secrets and would damagethe company if made public. In an order on Wednesday, Chen toldboth sides to further explain their positions, given theimportance of the information.

In a similar lawsuit against Lyft, Uber’s chief competitor,U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria denied that company’s requestto keep secret similar information.

Chhabria ultimately rejectedthe proposed $12.25 million settlement offer because itrepresented only about 9 percent of the potential value ofdrivers’ claims, a deal that he said ‘short-changed’ drivers.

While he will gladly cash a settlement check if one comeshis way, driver Perea said the deal with Uber provides littlesolace.

‘We were hoping for a more definitive answer on what theon-demand economy would look like in the future, and a sensethat this whole new economy that was taking off would work,’ hesaid.

A hearing on the deal is scheduled for June.