Pipe Fitter Who Claimed Coworkers Harassed Him Wins $4.2M Against Chrysler
A Jewish employee at an Illinois Chrysler assembly plant, who alleges he experienced religious and ethnic harassment at work, won a $4.2 million federal jury verdict this week.
Otto May, who was born in Cuba, claimed that coworkers regularly commented about his birth country, damaged tires on his vehicle and scribbled messages like “Heil Hitler” on his locker, according to the Rockford Register Star.
On Sept. 2, jurors found Chrysler did not do enough to stop the harassment. They awarded May, a pipe fitter and 22-year Chrysler employee, $709,000 in compensatory damages and $3.5 million in punitives. The case was originally dismissed in 2007, and that same year May’s first lawyer died. A week before trial May and his current attorneys, Karen Doran and Deanne Medina, turned down settlement offers from the automobile manufacturer, the paper reports.
