Federal Express employee wins discrimination suit in San Francisco

By Elizabeth Daley, Bay City News Service

November 23, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - A San Francisco jury in U.S. District Court awarded $950,000 dollars on Tuesday to a Federal Express employee who sued the company alleging race discrimination and retaliation, the law offices of Waukeen McCoy reports.

Pernell Evans, who remains a Federal Express employee in San Leandro, has worked for the company for more than 17 years. He filed a complaint in 1999 alleging race discrimination with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.

Evans alleged that after he filed internal discrimination complaints, he was removed from the shift he had worked for five years, separated from his long-time coworkers and required to provide quarterly feedback action reports when his Caucasian coworkers with lower performance scores were not required to.

Evans' employee evaluation scores have been in the top 25 percent of all evaluation scores for Federal Express operations managers in California, according to Federal Express spokeswoman Sally Davenport.

But Davenport said Federal Express "maintains it did not retaliate against Mr. Evans."

On Monday, the jury awarded Evans $475,000 in compensatory damages and on Tuesday Evans was awarded $475,000 in punitive damages. Evans' lawyer Waukeen McCoy reports Evans will also seek attorney's fees.

According to Davenport, Federal Express is "shocked by this verdict," and plans to challenge it with an appeal.

"Race discrimination in employment is despicable," said McCoy, "and this verdict sends the message to corporate America that retaliating against those who complain of discrimination in the workplace will not go unnoticed."

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