Oracle Sex Suit Winner Seeks $679,000, Apology

Former IT sales account manager in England seeks compensation after winning her gender discrimination case.

An IT sales executive is seeking nearly $680,000 from software maker Oracle after winning a sex discrimination case against the company.

Karen Carlucci, an American IT sales account manager who worked at the company's U.K. headquarters in Reading for 10 years, won the sex discrimination case at an employment tribunal earlier this year, after exposing a "boys club" culture in which she was subjected to sexist e-mails and sexist behavior from her male bosses.

After making a formal complaint of sex discrimination to Oracle, Carlucci said she was told by her manager, "Is this how you want to be remembered?" And after returning to work following maternity leave for the birth of her second child, she said a restructure forced her into a lower-level job and so she resigned.

At a compensation hearing at a Reading employment tribunal earlier this year, Carlucci asked for $710,000 in damages related to loss of earnings. She said the stigma of a sex discrimination case and her age would prevent her from getting a similar position within a new company.

But this week, the tribunal ruled that a loss of earnings could only be claimed up until Carlucci's decision to relocate to Utah with her family in December 2003, six months after she left Oracle.

Based on her annual basic salary of $120,000 and average commission of $250,000, the tribunal awarded Carlucci $188,000 for the period she was out of work in the United Kingdom. The figure also included costs for aggravated damages and unfair dismissal.

Richard Byrne, the tribunal's chairman, criticized Oracle's behavior toward Carlucci and its conduct during the hearings.

The final judgment document stated: "The decision to demote her was taken at a senior level and was a response to her having issued proceedings in the tribunal claim of sex discrimination against the respondent. The defense of the proceedings was deliberately intended by the respondent's to be (intimidating) and cause the maximum unease and distress to the applicant."

The tribunal did not follow one of Carlucci's demands that the board of directors at Oracle make a public apology for the treatment she suffered. The tribunal said that because Oracle had never admitted liability and was appealing the initial decision, it would be inappropriate at this time.