Federal Jury Awards Nearly $15 Million in Racial Bias Case

Author: David B. Weisenfeld, XpertHR Legal Editor

February 20, 2015

A federal jury in Colorado has awarded nearly $15 million to 11 warehouse workers who claimed their California-based employer, Matheson Trucking and Matheson Flight Extenders, Inc., segregated workers by race and retaliated against them when they complained. The lawsuit also accused white supervisors at the company's Denver-area facility of calling black employees "lazy, stupid Africans," and of using the "N" word when referring to them.

Ten of the workers who brought the lawsuit are black, many of them from the African country of Mali. The remaining plaintiff was a white employee who was fired after complaining about how his co-workers were being treated. The whistleblowing employee who challenged his employer's practices told The Denver Post, "I did the right thing. This isn't 1960 anymore."

All of the plaintiffs worked at a Matheson handling center at the Denver International Airport. The plaintiffs obtained internal company memos that reportedly revealed supervisors were targeting black employees as part of a downsizing. In addition, the suit claimed that favored double-pay holiday shifts were given to white employees, including those with less seniority than their black co-workers. All of the plaintiffs were eventually terminated.

The company denies all of the charges and says it will appeal. In a statement, its CEO called Matheson a family-owned business that is committed to equal opportunity, and said the verdict paints a "false perception" of the company. Matheson transports mail for the US Postal Service as well as several private vendors, including UPS and FedEx

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), racial discrimination charges accounted for 35% of the total charges that the agency received in fiscal year 2014.