Leprino Foods Settles Discrimination Complaint

DENVER (AP) — Leprino Foods Inc. has agreed to pay $550,000 to settle allegations of hiring discrimination at its Lemoore West facility in California.

The U.S. Labor Department alleged the Denver-based dairy products company tested applicants for skills like applied math for on-call positions involving tasks such as cleaning, and that African American, Asian and Hispanic applicants generally tested worse than other applicants.

The department said Thursday that Leprino has agreed to pay $550,000 to 253 people rejected for on-call jobs from January 2005 and October 2006 and to hire at least 13.

Leprino defends its use of the test but says it settled, partly because its case would've been heard by an administrative law judge with limited possibilities for appeal and it had already decided to stop using the test.

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