Hormel's Jennie-O must pay nearly $500,000 in back wages in gender discrimination settlement

In the face of a federal discrimination lawsuit, Hormel's Jennie-O Turkey Store Inc. has agreed to hire more than 50 women and pay nearly $500,000 in back wages to hundreds of applicants denied job interviews at the company's turkey-processing plant in Willmar.

A review by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, found that Jennie-O disproportionately granted interviews to men over women applicants during one phase of the hiring process. This, the department found, led to hiring discrimination against qualified women applicants over a one-year period between February 2009 and February 2010.

Jennie-O, based in Willmar, will hire 53 women out of the eligible pool. Eligibility requires the women to have applied for one of these jobs during the documented period. The department will send notification letters to the women, informing them of the job opportunity. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Austin-based Hormel Foods Corp., will pay nearly $492,000 in back wages and interest to the 339 women job applicants denied entry-level jobs at the facility during that period.

"We reiterate our commitment to a discrimination-free workplace for our employees and disagree with the Department of Labor's claims," Hormel said in a statement.

The settlement was a way to avoid costly litigation and "move forward with our business," the company added.

The jobs pay an hourly rate of about $11.50 and are for laborer positions, including warehouse attendant, utility person, distribution worker, production worker, slaughter production clerk, killer/sticker, live hanger, inventory clerk/driver and plant truck driver. More than 90 percent of available positions are production worker positions.

Applicants did not complete any testing or tasks before not being selected.

In a similar, but much larger, case, Cargill agreed to pay $2.2 million in 2014 to settle federal hiring discrimination charges at three of its meat processing plants. Cargill, which disagreed with those findings, agreed to pay back wages to nearly 3,000 applicants at a turkey plant in Arkansas, a beef operation in Colorado and a pork facility in Illinois.

Jennie-O is required to hire 53 applicants based on department estimates. If discrimination were absent from the process, the department argues, the selection rate for these jobs would typically be about 35 percent women. Had the company hired women at this rate, an additional 53 women would have landed jobs.

The back wages settlement was calculated based on what the women could have earned if hired at Jennie-O and then what they would likely earn elsewhere subtracted from that total. The minimum payout is about $1,450 a person.

Jennie-O is the second largest producer of whole and processed turkey products sold to retail and food service outlets in the United States. It employs about 7,000 people in more than 70 countries.

"Discrimination can be prevented when employers have nondiscriminatory selection procedures in place and make certain that they are followed," said OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu in a statement. "Jennie-O has worked proactively with our agency to resolve the agency's findings of discrimination and has agreed to train personnel involved in the selection process to ensure that nondiscriminatory policies are carried out going forward."