Drivers given go-ahead to sue FedEx for discrimination
March 6, 2007
The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has ruled that four Arab-American drivers for FedEx (NYSE: FDX), all practicing Muslims, can sue their employer for discrimination after the four charged that their supervisors harassed them by calling them “terrorists” and asking them if they were sending money to Osama bin Laden. One of the men said that besides the verbal harassment, his supervisor had thrown packages at him. When the driver complained about changes to his route, he claims the supervisor asked him not to get angry and blow up his car.
FedEx had argued that the four men, who worked for the delivery company’s ground package unit, were independent contractors and not employees and were therefore not protected by Massachusetts anti-discrimination laws. The Commission rejected that contention, which allows the suit charging that the unit and two of its supervisors engaged in a “pattern of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination”.
FedEx would not comment on the specifics of the ongoing case, but said that one of the supervisors named in the lawsuit has since left the company’s employ while the other still works for the company. A spokesman did say that FedEx “doesn’t tolerate” violations of its anti-discrimination policies and that those employees who do violate them are disciplined appropriately. In a similar case in 2006 in California, a jury awarded $61 million to two drivers who complained of similar harassment over a two-year period.