But justice was done in this case:
BY BOB KALINOWSKI (STAFF WRITER)Published: August 17, 2013
A federal jury has awarded $750,000 in damages to a former employee of MotorWorld Group who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the car dealership.
Fadwa Charnitski claimed in a lawsuit she was subjected to a hostile work environment and was fired because she is a Muslim woman from Kuwait. The lawsuit claimed MotorWorld fired her without an investigation or hearing after a baseless complaint that she called a customer “a stupid American.”
Following a trial this week in federal court, a jury ruled Charnitski was discriminated against based on her gender, race and national origin. The jury determined she was not discriminated against based on her religion.
Jurors awarded $250,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages against MotorWorld, the region’s largest vehicle dealership, which sells 14 vehicle brands on 77 acres in Plains Township and Wilkes-Barre.
Charnitski’s lawsuit claimed she was harassed throughout her employment, between September 2005 and Nov. 3, 2009. The suit described her as “one of the top sales persons” for the company and the only female in that role. She claimed coworkers called her racially charged insults and told her the entire Middle East “had to be nuked,” she said. Documents associated with the Taliban were once left on her desk, she said. She said she regularly wrote Arabic prayers on her time sheets, but co-workers would cross out the prayers, she said.
According to the lawsuit, Charnitski complained to supervisors, but they took “no action” and she was told to ignore the jokes.
Charnitski said she was then fired without warning and was not given a chance to defend herself when she was accused of calling a customer a “stupid American.”
Attorneys for Charnitski filed the suit in September 2010. After a trial earlier this week, the jury reached a verdict and awarded damages Thursday.
Attorneys for MotorWorld did not respond to calls for comment Friday.
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com
570-821-2055, @cvbobkal