We often see wrongful termination suits based on alleged discrimination. However, in the case of an Oracle sales manager, the termination was allegedly the result of his efforts to get fair compensation for an employee he sought to bring to California from India.
The former sales manager, who worked for Oracle in Europe and at its U.S. headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, claims in his lawsuit against the computer technology giant that the company fired him after he complained that his manager and other company executives discriminated in their compensation of employees based on their ethnicity and national origin. He alleges that they paid employees from India less than “white” employees.
The plaintiff, who filed his suit this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, joined the company in 2005. The situation that the plaintiff says led to his termination occurred in Sept. 2012 when he sought to transfer an employee to California from India. He says that he asked to provide the employee with a “compensation level that was equivalent to Caucasian employees hired by Oracle for the same position.” However, the salary approved for the employee was “substantially lower” than he had requested. When he said that he could not offer the employee such a low salary, he alleges that he was told that it was “good money for an Indian.”
Shortly afterwards, the plaintiff, who, according to the suit, has always performed at a high level as a sales manager, was terminated without any notice. He asserts that the company’s actions were “unlawful” and is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages. He also wants “all injunctive relief necessary” to make the company comply with the law.
Employees who believe that they were terminated without just cause in retaliation for reporting wrongdoing or for standing up for what they believe is the right thing to do can and should seek legal counsel. Companies who do not follow the law or that act in a manner that discriminates against employees based on race, ethnicity, disability, gender and other reasons that have no impact on their ability to do their job can and should be held liable.
Source: Techworld.com, “Ex-Oracle salesman claims complaining about wage discrimination got him fired” Chris Kanaracus, Jan. 13, 2014
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