Citrus Firm Offers to Settle Sex Bias Suit : Labor: Saticoy Lemon Assn. packinghouse proposes to pay $550,000 to women in the class-action case. The dispute has lasted five years.

A lemon packinghouse has offered to pay $550,000 to settle a class-action suit that accused the company of sex discrimination in hiring, the company and attorneys said Wednesday.

The proposed settlement between Saticoy Lemon Assn. and a group of present and former workers does not include legal fees, which are still in dispute.

The offer was made last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for Judge John G. Davies’ approval. If approved, it would end a five-year battle.

Saticoy Lemon Assn. officials have maintained that their hiring practices were not discriminatory. They said the firm, which is based in Ventura, agreed to pay the settlement to avoid further legal expenses.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs describe the settlement as a victory that has far-reaching effects for the county’s farming industry.

“It’s an important case that certainly shows that these practices . . . are illegal and can be remedied,” said Paul L. Strauss, an attorney representing the women who brought the suit.

About 160 women who have filed claims for damages will be notified of the proposed settlement in the next few weeks, said Chris P. Danch, an Ojai attorney who is also representing the women. Attorneys anticipate that fewer than 100 women will be eligible to receive settlement shares.

No money will be distributed until final approval is given in a court hearing this fall. Settlement checks could range from $6,000 to $9,000 for each worker.

The suit filed in 1987 was brought by women who worked at the Seaboard Lemon Assn. of Oxnard, a packinghouse Saticoy acquired during a merger in May, 1986.

After the merger, some women who were laid off by Seaboard at the end of the growing season were later rejected for jobs by Saticoy. Meanwhile, men with little or no experience were hired.

Company officials testified during a trial last summer before a federal judge that they did not have job openings at the time that the women applied.

They also said some women did not fill out job applications. However, the women testified that they were discouraged from filling out applications.

The judge ruled after the trial that the company had violated federal discrimination laws, but had postponed a ruling on monetary damages.

As part of the settlement offer, Saticoy Lemon Assn. has agreed to grant about 20 women seniority for years that they worked at Seaboard.

Other members of the class-action suit who are not now employed at Saticoy will be placed on a preferential hiring list for jobs as general laborers.

Earlier this year, the court issued an order barring Saticoy from discriminating against job applicants and ordered officials to keep records of all applicants for the next five years.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Saticoy’s chairman, John Borchard, said the company has “an excellent working relationship” with its employees.

The settlement was in part the result of economic hardships sustained by the lemon industry after a recent freeze and the drought, he said.

“In addition to the litigation, recently we have had to deal with the twin natural disasters of the continuing drought and the effects of the severe winter freeze,” Borchard said. “Further legal proceedings may help the lawyers, but they don’t help the growers, the packinghouse or the workers.”

Lemon farmers countywide suffered about $57.5 million in damage from a December frost, county agricultural officials said.

Growers that supply Saticoy have produced 25% fewer lemons so far this year, said Laura K. McAvoy, a company attorney.

A crop will be picked and packed in August and September, so “the biggest impact has yet to hit,” she said.

Saticoy usually operates five lemon packinghouses in Ventura, Fillmore, Santa Paula and Oxnard, but only four plants were operating earlier this year, McAvoy said.