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Court upholds $1.5 million verdict in temp retaliation case

April 24, 2015

A federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict of more than $1.5 million in a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit against a High Point, N.C.-based logistics services provider for sexual harassment of and retaliation against three temporary workers, the federal agency announced.

The firm, New Breed Logistics, retaliated against the three temporary workers — and a male employee who supported the women's claims— from a Memphis, Tenn., warehouse because they complained about sexual harassment, according to the EEOC.

The $1.5 million judgment, the result of a seven-day jury trial last year, includes $177,094 in back pay, $486,000 in compensatory damages and $850,000 in punitive damages.

“In this case the employees verbally complained to the supervisor asking him to stop the harassing behavior on numerous occasions, but their complaints were ignored,” said Faye Williams, regional attorney for the Memphis District Office “Today, the Sixth Circuit affirms that such complaints to the supervisor constitute protected activity under Title VII.”