Settlement Announced in Nob Hill Bias Suit

The federal government announced a settlement Thursday of a discrimination case against Nob Hill Foods, owner of 27 markets in the Bay Area, calling for $1.3 million to be paid to women and minorities denied jobs and promotions.

The settlement also includes goals of hiring about 175 women and minorities and promoting 70 to 75 women in the next 3 1/2 years, provisions that will bring the total value to more than $4 million, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officials said.

Many of Nob Hill’s lower-level employees are women, but “when they looked around, they didn’t see any women managers,” said Susan McDuffie, director of the EEOC’s San Francisco district office. She said promotional openings were not posted, but there was evidence of “men being tapped on the shoulder and told, ‘Hey, do you want this promotion? It’s yours.’ ”

She said 83% of the company’s managers are men.

Paul S. Miller, one of the EEOC’s three commissioners, said an investigation that started in January 1994 also produced evidence of discrimination against women, blacks, Asians and the disabled in entry-level hiring, and of sexual harassment.

The complaint was filed administratively in 1994 and was settled without a lawsuit, the EEOC said. Nob Hill said in a statement that it denied discrimination and agreed to the settlement only to avoid the time and costs of litigation.

The Raley’s supermarket chain announced an agreement last month to buy Nob Hill Foods, which employs about 2,600 people and lists annual revenues of nearly $400 million.