4,100 women take on Oracle over unequal pay in class-action lawsuit

California Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope in Redwood City issued an order, certifying the plaintiffs’ proposed class of 4,100 women.

California Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope in Redwood City issued an order, certifying the plaintiffs’ proposed class of 4,100 women. (REUTERS)

Over 4,000 former and current women employees have accused Cloud giant Oracle of unequal pay in a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit.

The six Oracle workers who first sued against the company on 2017, seeking to be paid as much as their male colleagues, scored a major victory this week when a California state judge certified the class action lawsuit on Thursday.

According to a report in The Registrar, Xian Murray, Sophy Wang and Rong Jewett, who were employed as a project lead, a principal application engineer, and an application engineer, respectively, sued Oracle for unequal pay.

They were later joined by Marilyn Clark, Manjari Kant and Elizabeth Sue Petersen as plaintiffs.

"They claim that they were paid on average $13,000 less per year than male Oracle employees in similar positions," said the report.

California Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope in Redwood City issued an order, certifying the plaintiffs' proposed class of 4,100 women.

"First, Oracle's contentions do not appear to be consistent with Oracle's own documents and PMQ [Person Most Qualified] testimony," said the order from the judge.

"Oracle cannot set individual pay within a job code based on experience, education, and performance if it does so inconsistently between men and women," it added.

An Oracle spokesperson said: "This is just a procedural step unrelated to the merits of the case and we look forward to trying those in court".

Oracle may end paying several hundred millions dollars if a jury decided in women's favour, said the report.