Google wins fight over gender pay gap data

San Francisco, July 17 :  Nearly two months after reports surfaced saying Google tried to restrict media coverage of a gender discrimination case, the tech giant has emerged triumphant in its fight with the US Department of Labour over supplying pay gap data.

According to a report in Engadget late on Sunday, an administrative law judge ruled that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs overstepped its boundaries by asking for as much data as it did when trying to address reported pay disparities between men and women. 

It said that the Office could not justify why it needed as much info as it wanted, the report said.

The Department of Labour had accused Google of systematically underpaying women and the court battle centred on the company's refusal to hand over salary data the government has requested, to which Google replied by saying that the data request was overly broad and violates its workers' privacy.

It was alleged that the tech giant tried to dismiss a lawsuit, claiming that a government attorney may have violated ethics rules after he/she did an interview with British daily the Guardian.

The department had asked for job data up to 15 years old and wanted far-ranging personal data that included addresses and contact info for over 25,000 employees.