PHILADEPHIA — A former City of Philadelphia worker is alleging civil rights violations.
Tonya Looney, Jr., filed a complaint Feb. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the City of Philadelphia alleging civil rights violations.
According to her complaint, Looney was hired by the City of Philadelphia as an IT supervisor on Oct. 11, 2016. She claims that shortly after starting her position, she was warned by co-workers about her supervisor's "sex-based discriminatory conduct toward women."
Looney further claims the supervisor, Idris Abdul-Zahir, told her "being Muslim, my role as a man and a supervisor is to protect you and have you follow my lead" and that he asked for her loyalty. She further claims she suffers from Adenomyosis and anemia and required leave for surgery in October of 2017, and that her director retaliated against her and negatively commented on her leave absences on her performance evaluation.
Looney also claims Abdul-Zahir's "sex-based mistreatment" of women went unaddressed and that he played a role in one of her promotion denials. She alleges she was wrongfully terminated in April of 2019, over "false anonymous accusations."
Looney seeks monetary relief of at least $150,000, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. She is represented by Brendan Mehler and Michael Murphy of The Murphy Law Group LLC in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number 2:22-CV-00595-KSM