Hotel Co-Owner Ordered to Pay $70,000 for Firing Worker Who Filed Comp Claim

A county court in Iowa has ordered a hotel co-owner to pay $70,000 for the retaliatory firing of an employee after she filed a workers' compensation claim. Vijay Patel, co-owner of Quality Inn & Suites in Peosta, Iowa, must pay the award to former hotel general manager Sheila Oyler, according to an article in the Telegraph Herald newspaper. The Dubuque County District Court ordered Laxmee, the group of hotel co-owners of which Patel is a member, to pay more than $1 million to Oyler and former hotel worker Julie Schemmel for the retaliatory firing, sexual harassment and back p...