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EEOC Sues FedEx for Same-Sex Harassment
Contributed by wlbitty on Sunday, October 17 @ 03:03:02
EDT
CHICAGO, Sep 30, 2004 (United Press International
via COMTEX) --
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is
suing Federal Express Corp. for alleged sexual harassment
of male couriers at a facility in Illinois. More...
The class-action suit charges FedEx, the world's
largest express delivery company, permitted sexual
harassment of male employees by another male employee
and retaliated against a courier who repeatedly complained
to management by cutting his hours.
The alleged harassment occurred at a FedEx facility
in Kankakee, Ill., that employed about 30 workers.
EEOC officials said the alleged verbal and physical
harassment continued for at least three years before
the harasser was fired for assaulting an employee.
"One of the striking things revealed by our
investigation was that one of the harassment victims
complained not just once, but repeatedly, and FedEx's
response was negative," said John Rowe, director
of the EEOC's Chicago district office.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
© 2004 Stockgroup Media Inc.
$1.6M Cargo Claim Judgement
Posted on Thursday, September 02 @ 16:16:56 EDT
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 17 March 2003 -- A landmark $1.6
million jury judgment was entered today against Federal
Express Corporation for denying a cargo claim in bad
faith. The jury awarded Power Standards Lab, a tiny
manufacturer of electronic equipment in Emeryville,
California, compensatory and punitive damages against
FedEx, the world's largest cargo carrier.
In December 2000, Alex McEachern, founder of Power
Standards Laboratory, used FedEx to overnight his
one-of-a-kind power sensor equipment to a customer
in San Diego. He bought $20,000 worth of declared
value coverage to protect the product he had worked
over two years to produce. The equipment arrived in
San Diego severely damaged. McEachern documented the
damage and filed a claim with FedEx for $17,450, which
FedEx immediately denied.
McEachern attempted for months to get FedEx to pay
the claim, and says that a FedEx claims representative
told him that he would have to sue. McEachern did
just that.
"I suppose FedEx thought nobody would risk the
money that's required to sue for just $17,500,"
said McEachern, who had never filed a lawsuit before.
As it turned out, the jury awarded McEachern almost
$80,000 in legal fees as part of its verdict, and
added $1.5 million in punitive damages.
At trial, a FedEx Claims Manager testified that it
was FedEx's Claims Department policy never to respond
in writing to written inquiries from customers. And
the FedEx Claims Representative assigned to the claim
testified that in 20 years in the Claims Department,
she had never seen FedEx overturn a denial of a claim
in a customer's favor.
Michael Mazzocone, the San Francisco attorney who
represented Power Standards Lab, confirmed that in
addition to the jury awarding his client approximately
$80,000 in attorney's fees, it also awarded $1.5 million
in punitive damages, finding that FedEx's acted in
bad faith and with fraud or oppression in denying
the claim.
The landmark verdict is believed to be the first
of its kind in California against a cargo company
for acting in bad faith in the handling of a cargo
claim of a customer, and may open the door to similar
consumer lawsuits.
"The jury verdict should send a clear message
to FedEx and other cargo carriers that bad faith denial
of claims is not tolerated in California," Mazzocone
said.
"I hope that FedEx gets the message," said
McEachern, an internationally-recognized expert on
power quality and U.S. representative to the International
Electrotechnical Commission on power quality measurement.
"FedEx does a great job delivering packages,
but their Claims Department has room for improvement.
Once they get their act together, we hope to start
shipping with FedEx again."
Power Standards Lab plans to use the jury award to
pay legal fees, and to hire more technicians and engineers.
This legal blow is likely to be felt particularly
hard by FedEx, as the company is still smarting from
a $2.3 million verdict against them awarded February
24, 2003, in a civil rights suit filed by a former
FedEx employee.
(The Power Standards Lab vs. FedEx case was heard
in Alameda County Superior Court, Oakland, California
by Judge P. Zika, case #841938-1.)
Source: Press Release Michael Mazzocone, Esq. 415-399-0800
No FedEx Ground Price Hike in 2004
Posted on Monday, August 30 @ 16:33:53 EDT
NEW YORK, Mon Aug 30, 2004 - Climbing fuel costs
pose a challenge, but the head of FedEx Corp.'s ground
unit does not expect the division to raise prices
or implement a fuel surcharge before January.
"We evaluate our prices all year but generally
have initiated rate increases in January and that
is my plan right now," Daniel Sullivan, chief
executive and president of FedEx Ground, told Reuters
in an interview on Monday.
"On the ground side, we don't have an underlying
fuel surcharge so I have to continue to improve my
margins by improving our productivity and lowering
our costs."
FedEx Ground, the second-largest U.S. ground carrier
of small packages, is using technology to help plan
routes to become more efficient and lower costs.
"Even as we have escalating unit costs in fuel,
hopefully we are reducing the amount of miles we drive
because of the efficiency of other places," Sullivan
said. "We ask our driver teams to keep equipment
well-maintained and efficient, and when they do that,
they keep costs down. I think we are doing everything
we possibly can to offset the impact of higher fuel."
Although higher fuel costs may weigh on margins,
the ground unit's strength was one of the factors
behind FedEx's higher fiscal first-quarter and full-year
earnings forecast last week. Logistics and trucking
companies have enjoyed robust volumes sparked by the
economic recovery.
"I think overall our customers are cautiously
optimistic," Sullivan said. "Retail was
exceptionally strong for us through our last quarter
... I think that is continuing. We are also seeing
good growth in manufacturing, in services and in the
home sales sector."
Sullivan said he expects the holiday season to be
"a boomer," adding: "There's no question
about it from all the information we have from customers
and the economic information we have available to
us."
FedEx last week boosted its fiscal year capital spending
forecast. The ground division has spent about $400
million of the nearly $2 billion it expects to spend
on plans to double capacity by 2010 to handle the
volumes expected during that period. The expansion
plan, which began in fiscal 2004, focuses on FedEx
Ground's hub operations.
The company's recent purchase of consolidator Parcel
Direct, expected to close this year, makes a strategic
match for FedEx Ground. Once integrated, the business,
which targets Internet retailers and catalog companies,
will contribute about 8 percent to 10 percent of FedEx
Ground's revenues, Sullivan said.
Source: Reuters by Reshma Kapadia
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