Oracle embroiled in sexual harassment case

BANGALORE: An Indian woman computer engineer working for the world’s second largest software company Oracle has filed a lawsuit against a male colleague for alleged sexual harassment. In the process the woman, whose name has been withheld for privacy purposes, has dragged her employer Oracle for allegedly not doing enough and acting upon her complaints about the incident.

The lawsuit was filed on July 18 in the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, California. The plaintiff has named Mahesh Anand, her manager at Oracle who has left Oracle and has taken up employment in another major tech firm, as the defendant.

According to a PR Newswire (PRN) report, the assaults occured when the woman’s husband wasn’t in town . The plaintiff decided to report Anand to Oracle after her husband’s return.

According to PRN, the woman passed a polygraph examination administered by Ronald Hilley, a certified polygraph examiner. It also says that Oracle never told the plaintiff what action, if any, Oracle took against Anand, or if they (Oracle) believed her allegations.

When contacted, Oracle’s Jennifer Glass, vice-president of public relations at Oracle said, "Oracle takes any allegation of employee misconduct very seriously, and Oracle believes it has acted appropriately in this matter. The facts do not support the allegations made in the case but it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

The woman, a 33-year-old senior applications engineer, has been employed by Oracle at the company’s San Mateo offices since 2000, and working under Anand’s supervision since November 2000.