By IANS
San Francisco : An Indian American engineer who was fired by Chevron after she complained of her senior’s racist conduct was awarded $5.5 million by a federal jury here.
A San Francisco jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages to Kiran Pande Monday.
India-born Pande was fired by Chevron in late 2003 after 15 years with the company in retaliation for her complaining about the racist conduct of a supervisor, who is now the oil company’s chief compliance officer, news portal insidebayarea.com reported.
Pande, who holds a doctorate from Stanford University in petroleum engineering, claimed that her 15-year career with Chevron went downhill after she reported Rex Mitchell’s racist remarks about her heritage.
“Because senior level management were involved in this illegal conduct, I would hope that Chevron would appoint an independent board to investigate their practices,” Pande said in a statement.
One of Pande’s attorneys, Susan Harriman, said Chevron deprived Pande of a promotion, a merit raise and ultimately her job and benefits.