Former female employees of Oracle scored a major win in the California Supreme Court late last month after a judge certified their class-action suit. The lawsuit, filed in August 2017 by former employees Rong Jewett, Sophy Wang, Xian Murray, Marilyn Clark, Manjari Kant, and Elizabeth Sue Petersen, claims that Oracle paid the women an average of $13,000 less than male employees in similar positions.
On April 30, 2020, California Supreme Court Judge Raymond Swope issued an order, certifying the proposed class of 4,100 former and current female employees of Oracle. “Whether the jobs at issue in this case are substantially equal or similar is a question of fact for a jury,” Swope said in his ruling. The judge rejected Oracle’s claim that each of the plaintiffs’ cases are individual because people with the same job code don’t perform the exact same duties. Swope’s ruling gives the plaintiffs and other women critical leverage to pursue the case under California’s Equal Pay Act.
This is not the first time Swope has dealt a blow to Oracle in this case. In a completely separate ruling, he refused to toss a commissioned study by the plaintiffs, which found that women at Oracle earned 13% less than males in similar positions. The study was conducted by University of California-Irvine economics professor David Neumark.
The California Supreme Court Ruling Adds to Oracle’s Fight Against the US Department of Labor
The California Supreme Court’s decision to certify the plaintiffs’ class-action lawsuit against Oracle is not the only legal strain on the company right now. Oracle is also fighting a gender-pay disparity complaint brought by the US Department of Labor that claims the federal contractor owes women and other minority employees $400 million.
In the lawsuit, the DOL claims that Oracle systematically pays caucasian male workers more than their counterparts in the same job title. In addition, the DOL also accuses Oracle of favoring Asian workers during its recruitment and hiring process for technical roles. However, Oracle continues to deny these allegations and filed a counterclaim against the DOL in November 2019, stating that the DOL’s discrimination claims against federal contractors are unconstitutional.
Call a California Class Action Lawsuit Attorney Today
When a group of employees suffer due to the actions of their employer, they can seek a class-action lawsuit. In California, class-action lawsuits hold employers responsible for unethical actions against their employees, protecting future workers from similar harm, and compensating past or current employees.
At the Workplace Rights Law Group, our California class-action lawsuit attorneys passionately advocate for California workers. With nearly 100 years of combined experience in employment law and millions of dollars recovered for our clients, we know how to take on large companies like Oracle.
If you are a current or former employee of Oracle and want to join the class action lawsuit, give one of our California class-action lawsuit attorneys a call at 818-243-8300 for a free case review.
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Theo Khachaturian
Theo is a trial & appellate lawyer whose practice has emphasized wage-and-hour class actions, business disputes, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and intellectual property theft. He has tried civil cases and argued before various California Courts of Appeal.