In a rare public display of the alleged bias against female and minority tech workers, the Department of Labor made its case in a hearing Thursday that Oracle underpaid women, Asians and black employees working in certain roles at its Silicon Valley headquarters by $401 million over the course of four years, one of the largest federal anti-discrimination cases to go before a judge.
Over the course of the multiday hearing, the Labor Department is set to call 21 current and former Oracle employees as witnesses to bring to life the statistical claims that Oracle violated equal opportunity statutes governing federal contractors. The agency alleges Oracle, the database management company, paid some women as much as 20 percent less than their male peers, or $37,000, in 2016. The lawsuit was filed by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which audits companies with government contracts worth more than $100 million a year.
“The only thing worse than economic discrimination is economic discrimination subsidized by tax dollars,” Janet Herold from the OCCP said during her opening statement.
During Oracle’s opening statement, the company’s counsel argued that Oracle does not discriminate and pointed out that the company is run by a woman.
