Department of Labor Sues Oracle and Google

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Oracle Corporation for discriminatory pay and hiring practices and Google for withholding pay and compensation data.

According to the DOL Oracle systematically pays white male employees more than minorities, women and Asians doing the same job. The suit goes on to accuse Oracle of favoritism in hiring Asian workers for technical and product roles over others applying for the same jobs.

Oracle is a federal contractor that  provides services, software and hardware to the U.S. government and is required to maintain equitable and fair hiring practices.

In response Oracle claims the suit is politically motivated. In a statement to TechCrunch.com an Oracle spokesperson said; “The complaint is politically motivated, based on false allegations, and wholly without merit. Oracle values diversity and inclusion, and is a responsible equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Our hiring and pay decisions are non-discriminatory and made based on legitimate business factors including experience and merit.”

Oracle claims to have more that 400,000 customers in 145 countries. Oracle is second only to Microsoft specializing in developing and marketing database software and technology, cloud engineered systems and enterprise software products.

If Oracle is be found to be discriminating the cost could be significant. The company could have its federal contracts cancelled and face a ban on receiving future contracts from the federal government.

Google has some questions to answer as well. The DOL   filed a lawsuit seeking the release of compensation data from Google. Google was asked by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs  (OFCCP) to submit the data in 2015 but so far the Google has not complied. The data being demanded deals directly the company’s equal opportunity program and practices. Because Google is a federal contractor it is required to provide the information.

Unlike the Oracle lawsuit the DOL does not accuse Google of discrimination. Instead it alleges that Google failed to cooperate with the DOL as it conducted its audit. Instead the company sent a letter to the department declining to provide the asked for data. 

Federal contractor audits sometimes expose evidence leading to anti-discrimination lawsuits. Another government contractor, Palantir Technologies,  was sued last September by the Department of Labor for discriminating against Asian job applicants.

The suit against Palantir was set in motion after a compliance review by the OFCCP. The OFCCP found that Palantir had been in violation of  Executive Order 11246 since January 2010. The order details equal employment opportunities and non-discriminatory practices. The DOL alleges that Palantir’s hiring process “routinely eliminated” qualified Asian applicants for software engineering roles in the resume screening and telephone interview phases. Palantir is alledged to have hired a majority of people from its discriminatory employee referral system. Palantir denies the allegations.

Google claims to be withholding the information for privacy reasons. However the company has provided hundreds of thousands of documents in cooperation with the DOL audit. 

A Google spokes said in statement that; “We’ve worked hard to comply with the OFCCP’s current audit. However, the handful of OFCCP requests that are the subject of the complaint are overbroad in scope, or reveal confidential data, and we’ve made this clear to the OFCCP, to no avail. These requests include thousands of employees’ private contact information which we safeguard rigorously. We hope to continue working with OFCCP to resolve this matter.”