Publix Paying $10.1 Mil in Second Worker Bias Suit Settlement in Three Years

ORLANDO-Publix Super Markets Inc. of Lakeland, FL, 60 miles south of Downtown Orlando, is settling a three-year-old, class-action, race-bias lawsuit covering 15,000 black workers for $10.1 million. The suit alleges the employees were treated unfairly in hiring, firing and promotions over a seven-year period. Publix concedes the company violated its own rules but denies the allegations were based on race.

The settlement is the second in three years the country’s largest employee-owned grocery chain has been forced to make over alleged discrimination policies. Publix paid $82.5 million in 1997 to settle a sex bias suit filed by female employees who alleged their promotions were slowed or blocked because of gender discrimination.