OXNARD : Laborers Collect on Lemon Co.’s Settlement
Julia Salanoa says she plans to visit family in her native Samoa. Isabel Sapien will bank her money now that she is retired. And Maria Godinez says her check will be spent on a baby due in June.
The three women are part of a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the Oxnard Lemon Co. settled last year.
More than 100 current, former and prospective packinghouse employees are sharing in the $575,000 settlement. On Monday, they started collecting their money.
“We are very happy,” said Godinez, 37, who picked up a check for $1,176 at work on Monday. Godinez, who will collect a total of $4,248, will receive two more checks within the next two years.
“This is very good for us,” added the 16-year packinghouse laborer. “It gives us more opportunity to have work.”
The lawsuit, filed in 1991, alleged that Oxnard Lemon upheld a pattern of discrimination against women in hirings, promotions and job assignments. The suit alleged that women were given fewer regular and overtime hours and no access to or training for higher-paid positions.
Last June, U. S. District Judge David D. Kenyon ruled that the company was guilty of discriminating against women in hiring. A settlement was reached a few months later.
Under terms of the settlement, Oxnard Lemon agreed to maintain non-discriminatory hiring and promotion practices. In addition, the company reserves for women some jobs traditionally held by men.
Company officials have said that the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing but an attempt to avoid a costly, drawn-out legal battle. They also have maintained that women have always been able to hold any packinghouse job they applied for and were qualified to do.
Under terms of the settlement, five named plaintiffs will get $20,000 each; two other named plaintiffs who complained of discrimination in hiring each will receive $10,000; $325,000 will be divided among 94 current and former workers who were discriminated against in job assignments and promotions; $115,000 will go to 29 hiring discrimination victims, and $15,000 will go to pay for arbitration, if necessary, to enforce the agreement.
In addition, California Rural Legal Assistance and a private Chicago law firm will split $675,000 in attorney fees. More than a dozen former and prospective employees showed up at CRLA’s Oxnard office Monday to collect the first installment of the settlement.
Salanoa picked up the first of three checks toward her $6,372 settlement amount.
“For those girls, it was good for them,” said the 65-year-old Salanoa, who retired last year after 26 years with Oxnard Lemon. “Now women are able to work where they want.”
