Posted on 01/14/2014 8:21:14 PM PST by coldphoenix
A former Oracle sales manager is suing the vendor, alleging he was fired shortly after complaining of discriminatory actions by his superior and other company officials.
Ian Spandow was a high-performing sales manager at Oracle in Europe and later California, according to his lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. After coming aboard in 2005, he trained more than 1,000 new hires and gave skills coaching to hundreds of others, the suit states.
Spandow was subsequently promoted in January 2008 to the position of coaching manager, and after continued success was promoted to work as a sales manager at Oracle's U.S. headquarters in Redwood Shores, according to the suit.
Despite performing well in his new role, Spandow, who is Irish, "experienced discriminatory and retaliatory conduct based on his national origin and after his complaint of various improper practices, including the company's discriminatory pay practices of employees based on their national origin," the suit states.
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.
Spandow has suffered "humiliation, embarrassment, mental anguish and severe emotional and physical distress," according to the suit, which also alleges that Oracle has engaged in a pattern of paying Indian employees less than whites.
He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, a declaration that Oracle's conduct was unlawful, and "all injunctive relief necessary to bring [Oracle] into compliance" with related laws, according to the suit.
Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined to comment on Spandow's allegations Monday.
If you have a problem with foreign works here legally, that is your issue not mine
As far as ignorant, people are demanding 24/7 customer service, how would you think that should happen?
Sorry I actually do not have problems with legal foreigners, sorry you do.
Ellison is a jerk.
Glad your friends aren’t treated that way.
I have friends at oracle who have been years in the job, who would disagree with your people.
That does not take away that Ellison himself is a jerk.
You mean he has to pay them more than they’re worth to keep them? Does that make sense?
Yeah. Tell me about it. On my last paying job I was replaced by THREE H-1Bs...
The market is not perfect; there are inefficiencies, friction, faulty communication, sub-optimal supervisors who can't fully assess their underlings' strengths, etc.
When I say that "I don't work that way," I am saying that it would not be in my nature to do otherwise. And I think that, by providing this form of (not consciously appreciated) added value, I receive more remuneration in other forms.
Regards,
Oh. I see. Like an American has to pay US taxes on any money he would earn working out of the country? That way?
We have an H-1B program because, at least according to our companies, they simply can't, can't find any qualified workers in this country.
This program allows them to hire foreign workers with equivalent skills for a fraction of the old prevailing wage. Yes, H-1Bs are paid "the prevailing wage" by law. The kicker being that the availability of hundreds of thousand of H-1Bs willing to work for half the old American wage is what sets the new prevailing wage.
Japan has a similar guest worker program, one that allows them to import labor to provide needed skills that Japanese candidates lack. BUT Japan requires that the Japanese company pay the guest worker 125% of the wages a Japanese national would command.
This allows Japanese companies to hire the people with the premium skills they need, and assures the Japanese workers that they won't be replaced with cheap foreign labor.
We could do the same in an instant here, if any of our "betters" gave a flying fig about American workers.
not just because they make lessHaving an indentured servant who must take all your arbitrary crap and smile, smile, smile while doing it is just tooooo much of a perk for the petty tyrant flavor of master.(because they don’t), but because they won’t argue with management and they will take abuse without complaint.
Although most managers are good decent people, one does not have to look too far in any job market to find a martinet.
Sooo, how do your friends who have worked at Oracle for a while deal with the ethical conflict? I mean, Oracle's bread and butter (as for many Sili Valley and other firms these days) is violating people's privacy.
Nope. It means he has to pay them what they are actually worth (more than a merely average employee would be paid) so that someone else doesn't recognize their value and woo them away by offering to pay them for their full value.
I’ll ask them. They work on financial software.
I didn’t say he wasn’t a jerk, what I’m stating is that your broad far reaching comment that ‘everyone’ is treated badly, is just plain false.
Hmm.. there is a clue somewhere in that photo but I cannot see Waldo :)
H-1B™ working as designed.
The Office - Diversity Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-Cf9R4q-c
“would you like some cookie cookie?”
They don’t make less. I know this because I work with them. We have laws that make that perfectly clear as far as h1b, and green cards in The IT industry and I expect laws are on the books for other industries that bring in folks from foreign countries.
Absolutely, I see it all the time.
And what, pray tell, would the prevailing wage be without a Biblically proportioned flood of cheap foreign labor on the market?
Or has the law of supply and demand been overturned by an act of congress?
I don’t know about where you are but, here in Silicon Valley there is a whole cottage industry of lawyers and consulting firms whose sole purpose is to “prove” that the prevailing wage for a job that paid an American $100K ten years ago is now only $65 or $70K to justify a low H-1B wage.
The kicker?
I’d cheerfully work for $65K, but can’t even get the interview, let alone a job offer.
A friend of mine started in Silicon Valley when it was staffed by American engineers. He saw American natives get displaced until they became a minority in the very industry that they created.
Sounds like Silicon Valley should be doing poorly, based on all the comments here.
Is it?
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