Oakland Fed Ex Workers Win Bias Lawsuit

OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS)  -- A jury has awarded $61 million to two FedEx Ground drivers of Lebanese descent who claimed a manager continuously harassed them with racial slurs.

Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, both of Pleasanton, said they were called “terrorists,” “camel jockeys” and other epithets. The harassment allegedly took place in 1999 and 2000 by Stacy Shoun, manager for the Oakland terminal where the two were contract drivers.

“We presented pagers sent through the company paging system, where the management would tell these employees they weren't in a desert anymore,” said their attorney, Christopher Dolan. He said they were repeatedly “told to go back to their country, told not to bomb people in the terminal.”

The two contract drivers took their complaints through three levels of management, but in each case the company chose not to act. Witnesses testified that some managers threatened to fire the two for escalating their complaints.

“Nothing was done and the conditions were allowed to worsen over time,” Dolan said, “causing the manager that was individually sued to feel that she had a right to do this to people.”

The $11 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages was awarded by a jurors that Dolan said were generally opposed to large damage awards.

“This was not some jury that was anti-corporation. This was a jury that was so shocked and offended by the conduct that they determined that Federal Express needed to be rocked out of its denial,” Dolan told KCBS reporter Melissa Culross.

In a written statement, Federal Express Ground described the award as “excessive.” The company said its policy forbids discrimination on the basis of national origin, and that it would “vigorously appeal” the verdict.

(jro)