Firm to Pay 19 Women in Job Bias Case : Labor: U.S. alleges plastics maker rejected qualified applicants for assembly line.

A plastics company that makes aircraft parts as a government subcontractor has agreed to pay $121,753 to 19 women it allegedly discriminated against by rejecting them for assembly line jobs for which they were qualified.

C & D Plastics Inc. will give the women back pay ranging from $278 to $15,508 each, the federal Department of Labor said Monday.

The amounts represent pay the women would have received if they had been hired by C & D on the dates they applied--minus what they earned at other jobs during that time. The assembly jobs pay between $6 and $6.50 an hour.

The company discriminated against 22 women applying for entry-level jobs at its Huntington Beach plant between 1990 and 1991, the Labor Department alleges. As part of the settlement, all were offered assembly-line jobs at the plant on Argosy Drive; four accepted.

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs alleged that it found evidence of discrimination at C & D during a routine check of hiring practices by government contractors last year. C & D is a defense subcontractor that makes plastic parts for the interiors of airplanes.

The company, which has recently laid off some of its workers, settled without asking for a hearing or admitting to discriminating.

“The company did not admit liability or guilt,” said Virginia Croudace, a company lawyer. “It settled to avoid potentially lengthy and costly litigation.”

C & D, which has several plants around Southern California, also agreed not to base future hiring decisions on gender, which federal policy prohibits government contractors from doing.