$1 Million Awarded in Job Bias Case

A Los Angeles jury has awarded a former city engineer $1 million as compensation for discrimination based on national origin and religion.

Mustafa Rez, a waste management specialist born in Syria, was repeatedly insulted and barred from promotion in 1994 by his supervisors in the Los Angeles Public Works Department because of his heritage, the jury found.

Rez, 49, said he suffered a nervous breakdown, depression, elevated blood pressure and heart problems, and was forced into early retirement.

“The reason I came here is because of democracy, the honest system here,” said Rez, a Covina resident who immigrated to the U.S. in 1985. “But they still have harassment against me as a Middle Easterner.”

The jury award came June 15. A spokesman for the city attorney’s office was unavailable for comment.

The case is unusual because most civil rights disputes against the city are settled out of court. In addition, Arab Americans often hesitate to fight discrimination through the courts out of fear and lack of faith in the justice system, said Hussein Ibish, a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington.

During most of his nine years in the public works agency’s Bureau of Engineering, Rez got top evaluations. “He was considered a talented engineer and was well-liked,” said his lawyer, Allen B. Felahy.

In late 1993, Rez submitted a proposal for a new sewage overflow plan that was budgeted to save the city about $40 million, court documents show. The saving would have, under a city incentive program, made Rez eligible for up to $50,000 in employee bonuses, Felahy said.

According to court documents, Rez’s supervisors said the proposal “made people look bad” and began to harass him in early 1994.

“You watch your back,” one supervisor said, according to court documents. “You damn Middle Easterners don’t understand the system here. There’s not going to be any promotion for you.” He also said, “Muslim people are troublemakers.” Rez is Muslim.

In ensuing months, Rez got his first negative evaluation. He was later denied promotions and took stress disability leave. “I felt like I was a good employee and I [could] save taxpayer money,” he said.