UPDATE 1-Mass. allows 4 FedEx workers' claim to proceed

(Adds detail, company comment)

By Scott Malone

BOSTON, March 5 (Reuters) - A Massachusetts state agency has ruled that complaints by four Arab-American men they were harassed by managers at FedEx Corp. (FDX.N) -- who called at least two of them "terrorists" -- may proceed.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination rejected FedEx's call to dismiss the complaints.

Kuwait-born Loay El-Dagany, 31, said on Monday he was subjected to abusive treatment by his manager from the time he started working as a FedEx trucker in Massachusetts in 2003.

"When I started working with FedEx, this guy, he tried to push me hard and called me names, using words like 'terrorist'," El-Dagany told Reuters. "He mentioned (Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, that we may be cousins ... Sometimes, when he doesn't like something, he'd take one of the packages and throw it in my face and go and scream."

Three other truck drivers who worked at the same Wilmington, Massachusetts location: Montaser Foad Harara, a Palestinian; Oukhayi Ibrahim, a Moroccan; and Yasir Sari, of Sudan, made similar claims in filings to the state agency in July. The four men are Muslim.

FedEx spokesman Perry Colosimo described the charges as "unsubstantiated allegations."

"FedEx Ground does not tolerate any behavior that violates our policies in regard to discrimination and we will take appropriate disciplinary action against those who do not follow those policies, including termination," Colosimo said.

In addition to verbal abuse, the men charged in filings with the Massachusetts agency that they were treated unfairly in their work assignments.

"These drivers were assigned and reassigned with worse routes and were intentionally given too many stops to handle," the complaint said.

All four are legally working in the United States, but have not yet obtained citizenship, said Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston attorney who is representing the drivers. They are seeking an end to the abusive treatment and unspecified monetary damages.

They charge that two FedEx managers, David Goyette and Mike Melnyk, harassed them and that higher management allowed the abuse to continue.

Colosimo said Goyette was no longer employed by FedEx and that Melnyk was being represented by FedEx lawyers in the matter.

Goyette could not be reached for comment.

Discovery in the case will begin next week, said Liss- Riordan.