By Zara Zhi
AsAmNews Correspondent
The US Department of Labor has launched a lawsuit against Oracle for discriminatory hiring practices. Although the suit alleges that Oracle pays White men more, what’s more interesting is that Oracle as been accused of giving Indian males an unfair advantage when it comes to hiring.
In the complaint, the DOL states Oracle “has a systemic practice of paying Caucasian male workers more than their counterparts in the same job title,” resulting in women, Blacks and Asians getting paid less for the same work.
The lawsuit also alleges that the tech giant has a bias towards hiring Asian Americans — specifically Indians/Desis — when it comes to technical roles, overlooking other groups.
Business Insider reports Oracle blocked the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs from doing a routine inspection of employee data, refusing to hand over the information.
The DOL report says:
“For example, Oracle refused to provide prior-year compensation data for all employees, complete hiring data for certain business lines, and employee complaints of discrimination,” the Department of Labor wrote in a press release. “OFCCP attempted for almost a year to resolve Oracle’s alleged discrimination violations before filing the suit.”
The lawsuit alleges that Oracle favored Indian males when recruiting new hires, according to The Register.
The tech conglomerate vehemently denies allegations of discrimination and says they are “politically motivated.”
It must also be pointed out that Oracles co-CEO, Safra Catz, is on the Trump transition team.
Asian American online users seemed to be upset with all Asians being “thrown under the bus” when the allegations only apply to Indians getting unfair advantages.
One online user wrote:
“Worked there quite a few years ago. Indians (and Caucasians) were prevalent at every level of management, but non-Indian Asians were almost only at the bottom. It was weird.
“Also while I was there, the two biggest “social” email lists were racial — Indians and [Caucasians]. Saw a lot of job postings go through those lists (instead of more general job posting email lists), which always seemed a bit shady to me.”
Another user said:
“This is key, IMO. Oracle knew it was doing some shady s***. And it’s really not surprising, given their track record. I’ve heard stories of Indian managers preferring Indian subordinates, and they were basing their hiring practices on that.”
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