A federal court jury in Midland, Texas, has awarded a $600,000 verdict against Atlanta-based United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) in a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a former driver who said she was fired because she is a woman.
The Odessa American reported that UPS fired Amber Ibarra in 2009 after she was involved in an on-the-job, single-vehicle accident. Ibarra, an Odessa resident, said the accident was an excuse, and that she actually was fired because she is a woman, the paper reported.
Brian Carney, one of Ibarra’s attorneys, told the Odessa paper that Ibarra worked her way up to be the only full-time woman driver at the facility. However, fellow drivers treated her differently.
“During that period, they had this kind of environment there where they made derogatory remarks about women,” he said. “She performed the job. No one had a complaint from UPS about how she did her job. No matter how they tried to run her off, she did what they asked her to do.”
The newspaper reported that according to the federal complaint, Ibarra was routinely expected to make more deliveries than the male drivers and was ordered to deliver, while pregnant, six 100-pound packages that her manager “saved” for her.
Jurors also heard how “Ibarra and other women at the Odessa facility were subjected to a pattern of repeated insults and harassment based on their gender, including testimony that male managers did not want women working at UPS based on their perception that women were weaker and slower and because they had menstrual periods,” said a statement released by the law firm.
Read more: AtlantaBusinessChronicle
