Judge Rules Against Firm in Bias Suit : Labor: But the attorney for the Saticoy Lemon Assn. says the court found no evidence of current discrimination against female employees.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that a Ventura County lemon-packing company illegally discriminated against as many as 100 female job applicants.

Paul Strauss, who filed the class-action suit on behalf of the women, said the Saticoy Lemon Assn. could be liable for damages totaling at least $1 million.

“We’re very happy with the decision,” Strauss said. “The women are winning everything that they could win.”

But Saticoy’s attorney disputed the estimated damages and said the company won a partial victory because the judge found no evidence of current discrimination against women.

In the opinion filed last week in U.S. District Court, Judge John G. Davies found that Saticoy, which operates five packinghouses in Ventura County, violated federal and state laws in 1986 by failing to hire women for jobs that were later given to male applicants.

In the decision, Davies cited statistics gathered by the plaintiffs’ expert witness showing that 44 of 45 people Saticoy hired that year were men.

The suit alleged that Saticoy was responsible for the hiring policies of the Seaboard Lemon Assn., an independent lemon-packing company that Saticoy acquired four years ago.

After the merger, many of the female workers who were laid off at the end of the previous growing season were never rehired by Saticoy, according to the lawsuit. They alleged that they were passed over for jobs in favor of less experienced male applicants.

Saticoy’s attorney, George Preonas, said the judge gave something to both sides when he found no evidence that Saticoy now practices discrimination.

“He’s made no finding that there’s any continuing discrimination,” Preonas said. “The judge agreed with us that these were all stale claims.”

The exact number of plaintiffs is unknown because some have moved or not heard of the suit, Strauss said. The legal dispute has already been lengthy and bitter, and the women might have to wait years for any monetary awards.

He said they are entitled to the pay they would have earned had they been hired by Saticoy when they applied for work, with that pay ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 per worker. The judge still has to specify who can seek damages and the process for making claims.

Strauss said he plans to meet with a group of former workers later this month to explain the ruling.

Meanwhile, attorneys have been asked to file arguments by Oct. 1 on whether an injunction should be issued barring Saticoy from further allegedly discriminatory practices.

“We don’t think there’s anything in the present practices that is improper,” Preonas said. Saticoy employs more than 400 workers at packinghouses in Fillmore, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Saticoy and Ventura.

Preonas acknowledged that some of the women who had worked at Seaboard and applied at Saticoy after the 1986 merger should have been rehired.

Preonas, however, blamed a lack of job openings after the merger, not discrimination.