NEW ORLEANS, May 4 (UPI) -- The New Orleans district attorney has offered to rehire some of the fired employees who successfully sued him in federal court for racial discrimination.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he would rather rehire them than pay five years of lost wages on top of the $1.9 million jury award they won, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.
Nearly all the 43 plaintiffs seeking lost pay testified they would like their jobs back, Jordan said in court papers filed last Friday. He said as many as 18 qualify for reinstatement.
Clement Donelon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the proposal isn't practical, though, and even if it was all 43 of the fired workers have the right to reinstatement.
During the trial, Jordan, who is black, said race was not a factor in the mass firing after his election. A jury of eight whites and two blacks found in March that he racially discriminated against a mostly white work force.
