Iowa woman awarded $382,500 in case against post office

By The Associated Press | Friday, May 09, 2008

DES MOINES — A federal jury has awarded a black woman more than $380,000 in her racial discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service.

Sheryl Rogers, a former night shift mail sorter at the Des Moines Post Office, testified during the trial that the harassment included chants of racial epithets by her co-workers.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2004, names Post Master General John E. Potter.

The jury awarded Rogers $382,500 on Tuesday after hearing five days of testimony.

“The jury clearly believed the post office allowed a hostile work environment to fester, and then failed to take prompt and effective remedial action,” Rogers’ attorney David Goldman said in a statement Thursday.

Rogers, 54, testified during the trial that she complained of her treatment on a couple of occasions, but her supervisors failed to do anything.

Goldman said his client was fired in August 2002, then offered back her position with the Postal Service in April 2005 — about six months after the lawsuit was filed. Nothing had been done by that point to correct the harassing environment, and Rogers couldn’t return to work under such conditions, he said.

Goldman said the jury saw through the offer and realized that Rogers couldn’t accept the position.

During the trial, Rogers’ grown children testified about how she worked nights at the post office while she raised them.

“She worked at the post office for 15 years without any discipline for any behavior misconduct. The jury saw her as a credible employee and they believed her,” said Goldman.

He said Rogers was awarded $200,000 for past emotional distress, $100,000 for future emotional distress and $82,500 in back wages.

“We are disappointed in the jury’s findings. The Postal Service does not agree with this verdict and we do not believe that any harassment took place,” U.S. Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said. “Until the court makes its final judgment, the Postal Service will be reviewing these findings to determine what, if any, action will be taken on our part.”