Associated Press
MOUNT VERNON — A former Skagit County employee has been awarded nearly $160,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging disability and age discrimination.
The Skagit Valley Herald reported Dale Haaland was fired from his job as landscape maintenance technician in 2014, less than six months after suffering a heart attack while working.
A damages complaint says Haaland, in his mid-60s, had been employed by the county for over a decade.
The complaint states that combined with a Labor & Industries claim filed by Haaland in 2012 after he fractured his spine falling from a ladder — for which the county was fined for safety violations — the county eliminated Haaland’s position because of his age and medical history.
The county’s director of Human Resources and Risk Management, Jessica Neill Hoyson, says the county denied the allegations but agreed to settle rather than continue a costly legal battle.
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