Federal Express drivers Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, both of Lebanese descent, say the nasty epithets from their manager went on for two years, which means the award works out to $15 million per epithet-year, $290,000 per slur-week, or $40,000 per imprecation-day. It was divided between $11 million in compensatory damages to the two men and $50 million in punitives. The jury assessed $1 million in damages personally against the supervisor, Stacy Shoun, terminal manager for the FedEx Ground facility in Oakland. He’ll certainly think twice about behaving that way again, won’t he? (Jordan Robertson, “Jury awards $61 million to two FedEx drivers in harassment suit”, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Jun. 3). Update Oct. 2: judge reduces award to $12.4 million.
$61 million for racial slurs
Federal Express drivers Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, both of Lebanese descent, say the nasty epithets from their manager went on for two years, which means the award works out to $15 million per epithet-year, $290,000 per slur-week, or $40,000 per imprecation-day. It was divided between $11 million in compensatory damages to the two men […]
3 Comments
For $15 million a year, I’ll sit in a chair from nine to five while you call me the worst names you can think of.
Ditto what Amy said, +1.
I knew a guy whose part-time job in collge was telemarketing – he said that, basically, shortly after you took th job, you either quit or bcame completely and utterly immune to verbal abuse of any kind. I assure you that what he put up with (for minimum wage) was worse than what these guys took.
For $15 million a year, I’d sit in that chair and *help* you think of ways to insult me.