Oracle will cough up $35m to resolve a class-action dispute with 1,725 of its workers in the US over unpaid overtime and meal allowances.

The superior court in Alameda County, California last week gave preliminary backing to the settlement, according to Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen and Dardarian – the legal eagles representing the claimants.

The case centred on allegations made by quality software assurance engineers, customer support engineers and project managers who worked for Oracle and Peoplesoft in Redwood City and Pleasanton from 2003 to 2006.

"The plaintiffs allege that Oracle failed to pay them and the certified class required overtime pay and provide proper off-duty meal periods," the law firm stated.

California County law states that staff working more than eight hours a day or 40 hours in a week are eligible for time-and-a-half. But Oracle wrongly classified the three groups of workers as administrative roles, making them exempt from the payments.

The software giant did not change its overtime policy for customer support engineers and project managers until 2007, though quality assurance bods still do not qualify for overtime and the settlement for them extends to November 2010.

A final hearing set for March will allow any workers to raise objections or go after individual claims.

Oracle admits no liability. ®