By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Four former human-resources managers at Dell Inc. are suing the computer company, accusing it of widespread gender and age discrimination.

Lawyers for the women filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, asking a judge to turn it into a class action covering thousands of former and current workers at Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Texas.

The former managers, Mildred Chapman, Angela Hopkins, Julia Mahaffey and Bethany Riches, accuse the company of paying men higher wages for equal work and failing to fairly promote women to higher positions.

Dell denied the accusations.

The lawsuit noted that there are no women in the company's highest tier of executives.

"This dearth of women at the highest reaches of the company sets the tone for women's poor representation in its upper-level professional and executive ranks, and helps explain the pay and promotion disparities women encounter at Dell," the lawsuit states.

Chapman, 59, also accused the company of disproportionately laying off workers older than 40 after it began cutting 9,000 jobs last year.

Dell spokesman David Frink called the lawsuit "without merit" and said the company doesn't tolerate discrimination in any form.

"We take any claim against our recognized efforts to embrace diversity and equal employment seriously," Frink said.

Dell employs about 80,000 people worldwide.