An eight-year legal fight has ended with a Mississippi poultry supplier agreeing to pay $3.75 million and other concessions to Hispanic workers to settle two discrimination lawsuits.

Koch Food of Mississippi LLC agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by 11 workers at the Morton plant and another filed on behalf of the workers by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The agreement was filed Tuesday in federal court in Jackson. U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan signed off on the three-year consent decree outlining the settlement terms.

The workers and EEOC alleged Koch subjected Hispanic employees and female employees to a hostile work environment and disparate treatment based on their race/national origin and sex, and then retaliated against those who complained.

The workers alleged that supervisors touched and/or made sexually suggestive comments to female Hispanic employees, hit Hispanic employees and charged many of them money for normal everyday activities at work, such as using bathrooms, taking leave or requesting job transfers. Further, a class of Hispanic employees was subject to retaliation in the form of discharge and other adverse actions after complaining.

In addition to the $3.75 million, Koch Foods will take specific actions to prevent future discrimination, including providing anti-discrimination training to employees; creating a 24-hour hotline for reporting discrimination complaints in English and Spanish; and posting anti-discrimination policies and notices in its workplace in English and Spanish.

The workers were represented by Southern Migrant Legal Services of Tennessee and Jackson attorney Rob McDuff.

"Our clients were very brave in making the choice to speak out,” said Caitlin Berberich, an attorney with SMLS who represented some of the workers. “We are pleased that after eight years of litigation, our clients and Koch Foods were able to resolve this matter, including implementation of practices that will hopefully prevent the types of abuses alleged in this case from happening in the future. This was important to our clients from the beginning.”

In a statement, Koch Foods said it has long maintained that the allegations of mistreatment were contrived and fabricated as part of a coordinated effort to obtain work authorizations through U visas. Although it has sought to hire only authorized workers, the company was in the process of obtaining discovery on the U visa information on the plaintiffs when the case was settled, according to Koch’s statement.

“We are pleased the EEOC and the plaintiffs have cooperated to resolve this litigation," Bobby Elrod, the company’s corporate director of Human Resources, said in the statement.

"Koch Foods is committed to continuing to provide a work environment where each person is treated with dignity as we implement the consent decree in this matter."

The workers’ lawsuit alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, and national origin and race discrimination. After investigating the complaints brought by the 11 workers, EEOC filed its own suit on June 29, 2011, for similar allegations alleging discrimination against a class of Hispanic workers at Koch chicken processing plant in Morton. The company has two other plants in Mississippi.

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