March 19, 2024

Woman who won retaliation lawsuit seeks job back

DES MOINES (AP) — A woman awarded $130,000 by a jury which found she had been the subject of retaliation by Iowa Workforce Development officials for filing a racial discrimination complaint now wants to be reinstated to a state job.

Attorneys for Dorothea Polk filed a motion in Polk County District Court Friday asking a judge to reinstate her to her job as a mailroom clerk or an equivalent position. Polk won her lawsuit when a jury returned a Nov. 7 verdict concluding the state fired her in 2006 two months after she filed a discrimination complaint.

It is the first of four similar cases involving black state workers fired from jobs between 1999 and 2006.