$100 MILLION COULD SETTLE TEXACO SUIT.Byline: Joseph Menn Bloomberg Bloomberg A major global provider of 24-hour financial news and information including real-time and historic price data, financials data, trading news and analyst coverage, as well as general news and sports. Business News Texaco Inc. Chairman Peter Bijur said he will settle a much-publicized racial discrimination suit by six workers soon, and lawyers for the employees said the cost probably will be less than $100 million - far below initial expectations. The suit, which seeks class action for 1,400 African-American current and former Texaco workers, will be resolved ``quickly,'' Bijur told reporters at the oil company's headquarters here. Bijur earlier met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson Noun 1. Jesse Jackson - United States civil rights leader who led a national campaign against racial discrimination and ran for presidential nomination (born in 1941) Jesse Louis Jackson, Jackson , who called for a national boycott boycott, concerted economic or social ostracism of an individual, group, or nation to express disapproval or coerce change. The practice was named (1880) after Capt. of Texaco gas stations until the suit is settled. Jackson Jackson. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,446), seat of Jackson co., S Mich., on the Grand River; inc. 1857. It is an industrial and commercial center in a farm region. , who also urged investors to sell their Texaco shares, said he plans to establish picket lines at the company's gas stations beginning Saturday. Bijur said he didn't expect the suit to be settled by then. Texaco shares fell 1-7/8, to 95-3/8. Any settlement ``wouldn't bankrupt BANKRUPT. A person who has done, or suffered some act to be done, which is by law declared an act of bankruptcy; in such case he may be declared a bankrupt. 2. It is proper to notice that there is much difference between a bankrupt and an insolvent. Texaco,'' said Daniel Berger, one of the workers' attorneys. The company has $35.6 billion in annual revenue. The most the company would have to pay in back wages is $71 million, assuming that the plaintiffs won both class-action status and a ``reasonable maximum'' verdict from a jury, Berger said. Settlements usually are for less than anticipated verdicts. The two sides have said they are in settlement talks. In a jury verdict, the company might have to pay compensatory damages A sum of money awarded in a civil action by a court to indemnify a person for the particular loss, detriment, or injury suffered as a result of the unlawful conduct of another. , said Cyrus Mehri, another lawyer for the plaintiffs. Under federal law, plaintiffs can receive up to $300,000 in compensatory damages if they prove they faced a hostile work environment A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears going to work because of the offensive, intimidating, or oppressive atmosphere generated by the harasser. . Estimates of Texaco's potential liability, including one by Bloomberg Business News, ran at least as high as $420 million - that is, if 1,400 plaintiffs received $300,000 in damages. But few plaintiffs in similar cases received damages even close to that amount, lawyers said. On average, they've received $5,000 or less for compensatory damages and back pay combined. A Texaco spokesman declined to discuss the potential amount of a settlement. |
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