Lawsuit Claims That Oracle Said That $50K Is ‘Good Money For an Indian’
This caught my attention during my morning coffee. According to IT World, Ian Spandow wanted to transfer a high-performing salesman from Oracle’s India office to California. Here’s what happened next:
In September 2012, Spandow asked for permission to transfer an Oracle employee working in India to California. Spandow wanted to give the employee, who had a good track record, “a compensation level that was equivalent to Caucasian employees hired by Oracle for the same position.” But Spandow’s manager denied the request and told Spandow to offer the worker a “substantially lower” amount of money, according to the suit.
“I can’t in good conscience, even mention $50K/$50 to him,” Spandow said of the employee in an email to his supervisor, Ryan Bambling, that was cited in the lawsuit. “It would be nothing short of discriminating against him based on his ethnicity/country of origin. How or what do I have to do/write to get a reasonable (60+) offer to him?’
This prompted a “stern response” and warning to Spandow, the suit claims.
Spandow subsequently raised his concerns with his sales director, Keith Trudeau, who said the lower salary offer would be “good money for an Indian,” according to the suit.
An Oracle human resources manager, Melissa Bogers, later insisted to Spandow that the lower offer was fair, the suit adds.
Spandow was “summarily terminated” without warning on Dec. 5, 2012, just weeks after the dispute over the salary offer, according to the suit.
Was the offer racist? It sure sounds like it to me. Was there payback for objecting to that offer? It sure sounds like it to me. But I am sure Oracle has a perfectly rational explanation for this. But if they do, they’re not talking as they declined to comment. Thus we’ll have to wait for this to hit a courtroom. But if it is true, it will really slant my opinion of Oracle.
Oh, for the record, I’m not naive enough to believe that this doesn’t happen elsewhere. It’s just that we likely don’t hear about it because it’s not part of a lawsuit.
January 14, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Oracle has one of the lowest pay rates in the SF bay area. Minorities in general at Oracle are paid way below market range, it is all minorities not just Indians at Oracle that are underpaid. Modern day slavery.
On the other hand, Safra Catz, President and CFO of Oracle has been maintaining the position of the highest paid woman in the US for the past few years!!
What a shame.