Osama Saleh Awarded $4.7 Million by Federal Jury

Osama Saleh was employed as a clerk at “Pretty Girl,” a New York women’s clothing store. In September 2007, he got into arguments while on the retail floor with a co-worker, Robinson. Robinson later confronted Saleh in the basement, where Robinson called Saleh a “terrorist” and “Bin Laden.” The verbal insults culminated into a physical assault on Saleh himself, an attack which left Saleh with a fractured cheekbone and seven days in the hospital. Pretty Girl management initially denied any wrongdoing by Robinson – they called the incident “teasing.” The jury awarded Saleh $4.7 million for emotional distress, assault, negligence in hiring Robinson, and punitive damages.

$4.7 Million Is Not an Excessive Award

$4.7 million sounds like a lot of money for some name calling. Of course, the millions that Osama Saleh is entitled to are not merely for racial slurs. The award also covers negligence and punitive damages. In English, the jury wasn’t just compensating Saleh for the fractured cheekbone, the hospital stay, and the “teasing.” The jury also wanted to punish Pretty Girls for allowing Robinson to harass and injure Saleh.

Let’s start with a simple idea: businesses care about money. Businesses often pursue the almighty dollar at the expense of other concerns. The downside to this profit drive mentality is that the love of money makes businesses very manipulatable.  If society wants a business to change its behavior, just show the business how expensive their behavior could become.

Punitive damages serve this purpose. By hitting the defendant with a heavy fine, the company will be forced to change its policy. The vice president, Victor Lavy, testified it was not against company policy to call someone “Bin Laden.” After this million dollar suit though, that policy might change. Pretty Girls might also try to stop racial conflicts from escalating between employees rather than write them off as “teasing” or “playing.” A fractured cheekbone is not playful behavior by any definition of “playing.”

The question becomes whether society should care how an employer treats an employee who calls a co-worker “Bin Laden,” “terrorist,” or make reference to some other racial stereotype. In most cases, I don’t think society should care. Employers have their own policies about how to deal with racial stereotyping, policies which were probably developed based on certain experiences. More importantly, employers shouldn’t be controlling what their employees say to each other unless it’s related to the job.

There must be exceptions though. If an employer willfully ignores problems between its employees to the point where the employees start punching one another, the employer has failed. $4.7 million might sound like a lot of money just to get a message across, but I’m expecting the amount to be reduced either by the trial judge or by an appeal court. Even if $4.7 million is the final amount, it’s a small price to pay to ensure the safety of all Americans at work.