NRI woman awarded $ 5.5 million for ''wrongful termination''of job

Washington, Oct 30 (UNI) An India-born American engineer, who claimed racism as the reason for her dismissal, was awarded 5.57 million dollars as ''punitive damages'' for ''wrongful termination'' of her job at the giant oil company, Chevron.

A federal jury in San Francisco, California, accepted her plea that she was fired after her complaints of improper conduct by her supervisor, who is now the CEO of the company.

The jury reached a unanimous verdict last night when they found that Chevron cut short Ms Kiran Pande's 15-year career at the San Ramon-based company in 2003.

A few months later, Ms Pande, a naturalised US citizen, took the matter to the court, alleging that Mr Rex Mitchell made racist remarks about her heritage. He, however, denied that allegation in court documents.

Ms Pande, who was fired while on medical leave, alleged she was being punished for her earlier discrimination complaint. The jury sided with her and rebuked Chevron by including 2.5 million dollars in punitive damages in its recommended award. The jury also decided Chevron should pay 3.07 million dollars to compensate Ms Pande for her past and future losses.

UNI