Fox News agreed to pay $10 million on Tuesday to settle a series of discrimination lawsuits brought by 18 former and current employees of the news network.
“The parties have reached mutual agreements that resolve various cases involving former Fox News employees,” Douglas H. Wigdor, an employment attorney representing the defendants and a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.
The New York Times reports that the settlement, paid by parent company 21st Century Fox, is roughly $50 million less than the previously proposed amount by Wigdor.
“The roughly $10 million agreement, while still a significant sum, is far less than the more than $60 million that Mr. Wigdor had proposed last summer. At the time, Mr. Wigdor had pointed out how 21st Century Fox had paid $40 million to Mr. Ailes and $25 million to Mr. O’Reilly, and said, ‘Outside the context of the mediation, any amount under what Ailes and O’Reilly got in total would be unjust,’” the Times reports.
Those who settled with the news network, a former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host and members of the Fox News accounting team, are allowed to speak publicly about their experiences.
A racial discrimination and defamation lawsuit — along with commentator Scottie Nell Hughes’ lawsuit against Fox Business Network anchor Charles Payne, who she accused of rape — were not included in the settlement.