A jury has awarded a $6.3 million to a former IT director at a Santa Fe Springs pipe supply company who alleged he was the victim of age discrimination, workplace harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination when he was laid off in 2020 and told it was due to a coronavirus-related work force reduction.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Superior Court jury granted Presciliano Contreras, now 66, $1.3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $5 million in punitive damages in his suit against Kelly Pipe Co. LLC.
Contreras, the firm’s IT director for 22 years, maintained in his suit filed in May 2021 that his inclusion in a 23-employee layoff in 2020 was not solely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as claimed by the company, but rather stemmed from being targeted for his age and for his multitude of complaints regarding discriminatory and harassing incidents he claimed to have experienced at work.
“Hopefully, this lights a fire in (Kelly Pipe) and management to better protect its employees and shows other employers that the pandemic will not be tolerated as an excuse for discrimination,” plaintiff’s attorney Anthony Nguyen said. “This outcome ensures that employees subject to discrimination have the ability to access legal representation.”
Defense attorneys maintained in their court papers that the impact of the coronavirus on company revenue indeed caused Contreras to lose his job.
“The reduction in workforce was required based upon the company’s projected reduction in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including its need to make operations more efficient,” the defense attorneys argued in their court papers.
Contreras was laid off because his department was restructured to reduce costs with certain functions being outsourced, according to the defense attorneys, who further maintained in their court papers that Contreras, contrary to his assertion, “was not a stellar employee.”