The U.S. Department of Labor Wednesday sued Oracle America Inc. over accusations that it discriminated in hiring and pay in violation of equal employment laws.

The lawsuit, filed by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, alleges that Oracle pays Caucasian male workers more than their female, African-American and Asian counterparts. It also alleges that the company favors Asian workers in their recruiting and hiring practices for product development and “other technical roles,” resulting in discrimination against non-Asian workers.

Like Palantir Technologies Inc. before it, the Department’s decision to take legal action was the result of an OFCCP compliance review of Oracle’s equal employment opportunity practices. Oracle is also alleged to have refused to comply with the department’s request for employment data and records, in particular failing to provide prior-year compensation data for all employees, complete hiring data for certain business lines, and employee complaints of discrimination.

The investigations were part of a compliance program to enforce a legal requirement that prohibits companies that take money from the federal government from discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity or national origin.

“Federal contractors are required to comply with all applicable anti-discrimination laws,” OFCCP Acting Director Thomas M. Dowd said in a press release. “We filed this lawsuit to enforce those requirements.”

Oracle flatly denied the allegations, saying it employs 136,000 globally with 37 percent of their workforce classified as minorities. “The complaint is politically motivated, based on false allegations, and wholly without merit,” Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement released to the press. “Oracle values diversity and inclusion, and is a responsible equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Our hiring and pay decisions are non-discriminatory and made based on legitimate business factors including experience and merit.”

One anonymous source told eWeek the move may be an attempt to wedge incoming President Donald Trump’s between two unappetizing choices. “They have filed against Palantir and Oracle, two companies with public ties to the current administration, in the three last days of the Obama administration in an effort to pressure the new administration,” the source said. “It’s meant to embarrass the Trump administration; they will be stuck with these lawsuits, and the labor side will cast aspersions on the Trump administration if it moves to change the litigation posture favorably/fairly to business.”

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