Ex-Oracle worker awarded higher damages in harassment case

An ex-Oracle executive who was awarded just $18,000 in a sexual harassment case against the software giant has had an extra $31,572 added to her damages payment.

The Federal Court today ordered Oracle pay Rebecca Richardson a total of $161,572.24 after deciding she was entitled to a sum to cover interest that accrued in the period between when the incident occured and the February 2013 judgment.

The Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 allows the court to include such a payment to compensate for the passage of time between a cause of action and the date on which a judgment is made. 

The court ordered that the most recent damages payment of $130,000 be increased to accommodate $31,572 in interest payments Richardson argued she was entitled to. Oracle did not dispute the figure, according to court documents.

Richardson initially won a sexual harassment claim against the company’s consulting sales manager Randol Tucker in early 2013, for which Oracle was ordered by the Federal Court to pay Richardson $18,000 in workplace compensation.

Richardson appealed the award in August last year, claiming a number of legal, evaluative and factual errors in the ruling had allowed incorrect conclusions to be made, influencing the low damages award.

Three judges in the NSW Federal Court later upheld several of her claims and ordered the initial damages decision be overturned, to be replaced with a $130,000 payout.