Engineer Sues PPG Claiming Age, Racial Discrimination

By BobKerlik

A longtime former PPG Industries engineer has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the company of racial and age discrimination and is seeking to have the suit certified as class action.

Amarendra Mishra, 61, of Fairfax, Va., claims the Pittsburgh- based company has systematically discriminated against people of Indian race or national origin and promoted younger white candidates with less experience.

PPG spokesman Jack Maurer said Wednesday the company has not been served with the complaint and wouldn’t comment specifically on Mishra’s lawsuit. He issued this statement:

“PPG has a strong commitment to equal employment opportunity, and does not make employment decisions based on race, color, age, disability, creed, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation or any other legally protected status.”

Mishra, a native of India, worked for PPG for more than 16 years in a variety of jobs until January 2007, when he said he was forced to resign at age 59 after the company’s hostile work conditions became unbearable.

If certified as class action, the lawsuit would open the door to others who believe they were fired for similar circumstances.

Mishra is seeking back pay, front pay, lost pension benefits, damages for emotional distress and punitive damages. He is seeking an injunction against the company to require it to take affirmative action to adopt procedures in accordance with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

“He was a tremendously accomplished engineer, and he was not rewarded for his achievements because of his ethnicity and age,” said Mishra’s attorney, Bruce Fox. “Mr. Mishra should have been greatly rewarded and respected but instead was given the opposite treatment for no apparent reason.”

Mishra was unavailable for comment because he was recently hospitalized, Fox said.

A federal arbitrator ordered PPG to pay out over $1 million in compensatory damages in 2006 to Kathleen Moyer, a former engineer of 36 years who claimed she was fired because she was 57, not because of her job performance.

Mishra claims he routinely received superior job reviews, praise for his managerial skills and numerous in-house awards and helped secure two patents worth millions of dollars.

Mishra worked at General Electric prior to PPG and has a doctorate in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree. He remained a staff scientist at the same level his entire career, according to the 31-page complaint he filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Downtown.

In the last year of his employment, Mishra said he was subjected to various forms of harassment, including being denied a permanent phone, office or business cards for three months. Make-work tasks and unreasonable deadlines would be given to him while he was on vacation or out of town to ensure his failure, according to the lawsuit.

In one of the final times he was passed over for a promotion, Mishra said a manager told him he was passed over for a young woman “because she was very organized and her desk was cleaner,” according to the complaint.

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