The US Department of Labor [official website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against Oracle America, Inc. on Tuesday alleging the leading technology company has a systemic practice of paying Caucasian male workers more than their counterparts in the same job title, leading to pay discrimination against female, African American and Asian employees. An additional allegation also claims that the company favors hiring Asian workers in its product development and other technical roles, resulting to discrimination against non-Asian applicants. The suit, brought by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) [official website] is a result of Oracle refusing to cooperate with an OFCCP compliance review of their equal employment opportunity practices. OFCCP Acting Director Thomas M. Dowd [official profile] stated in a press release [text], “Federal contractors are required to comply with all applicable anti-discrimination laws. … We filed this lawsuit to enforce those requirements.”

The Secret Service [JURIST report] has also faced employment discrimination allegations and in January agreed to a $24 million settlement with 10 black agents who accused the agency of racial discrimination in a 2000 federal lawsuit. The Labor Department has recently faced issues with the new overtime pay rule and had to file a notice of appeal when a federal judge decided to block [JURIST report] its implementation. In January the department filed a lawsuit against Google [JURIST report] for the company’s refusal to provide requested items related to their compensation policies.