John T. Mullan

Mullan leads the class action practice group at the employee-side Rudy Exelrod firm, where he focuses on enforcing state and federal laws that protect workers who are not paid fairly. Since joining the firm in 2002, he has recovered tens of millions of dollars in unpaid wages for his clients on claims involving unpaid overtime, meal and rest break violations and gender pay gap allegations.

“I always wanted to do workers’ rights stuff,” he said. He met former Rudy Exelrod partner John M. True, who served on the Alameda County Superior Court bench and is now a mediator and arbitrator, who told him about the firm and mentioned its interesting class action docket. “Since union membership has been falling, I was interested in representing workers who are not represented by unions,” Mullan added.

Looking at the big picture today, he said, unions may resurge. “The new administration is more friendly to union membership, and we are seeing more attempts to organize tech workers. There is certainly plenty of opportunity in Silicon Valley.”

Mullan is currently engrossed in an ongoing Equal Pay Act case against Oracle America Inc. in which as many as 4,000 women workers at the tech giant contend they were paid less than men—an average of $13,000 less per year—for doing substantially similar work in violation California law. Jewett v. Oracle America Inc., 17-CIV-02669 (S. Mateo Co. Super. Ct., filed June 16, 2017).

A year ago the court certified the class. “The certification ruling was believed to result in the largest Equal Pay Act class of its kind and has been referred to as a ‘legal milestone’ and a ‘blueprint’ for how to bring paycheck discrimination cases,” Mullan said.

Oracle’s appeal of the certification went nowhere, but it slowed discovery. “Now that has picked up again. We’re updating payroll data. Next we expect Oracle to move to decertify, but we don’t think there’s anything that would cause the judge to revisit his decision.”

His firm’s track record in equal pay matters could signal success in the Oracle case, though Mullan said there have been no settlement talks so far. A trial is set for late 2022. In late December 2020 Mullan’s partner David A. Lowe settled for $22.5 million a single plaintiff gender pay case against Pinterest Inc. by its former COO. Brougher v. Pinterest Inc., CGC-20-585888 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 11, 2020).

In a case that became more relevant in the pandemic era of remote work, Mullan settled in February for $750,000 a class action on behalf of Weight Watchers workers in California who alleged they had not been reimbursed for work expenses related to required smartphone and data plan purchases. Hirsh v. WW North America Holdings Inc., 2:19-cv-09782 (C.D. Cal., filed Nov. 14, 2019).

“It’s not a huge amount, but there is emerging attention to employers relying on workers’ own resources when they work away from home,” Mullan said.

— John Roemer