California Company that Refused to Hire ‘Non-Hispanics’ Must Now Pay $2M

Marquez Brothers, a California manufacturer of Mexican-style cheese and other food items, must pay $2 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed more than two years ago. The settlement was announced in September 2019.

The discrimination lawsuit was filed by two African American individuals who attempted to submit job applications. When they requested applications from the Marquez Brothers’ Hanford facility, they were refused the paperwork required to applied. One of the potential applicants had numerous years of dairy goods production experience but was not hired even though the job applicants eventually hired were far less qualified. In fact, he was not even allowed to apply at all. 

The second potential job applicant attempted to apply for a job at Marquez Brothers various times but was discouraged from applying and advised that the company was not hiring. During the course of the case, allegations were made that the Marquez Brothers routinely discriminated against non-Hispanic job applicants. The refusal to accept job applications from non-Hispanic job applicants was normal procedure. This standard practice occurred at various Marquez Brothers’ locations throughout California including Hanford, Fresno, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The discrimination was also evident at out of state plants in Texas, Nevada, and Colorado.

The two men who originally brought the discriminatory employment practices to light were African American, but further investigation into the issue showed similar acts of discrimination against other ethnicities including white, Asian, etc.

According to the settlement agreement, the company must provide monetary compensation, take steps to prevent future discrimination including hiring an external monitor, creating and implementing appropriate goals, improving training and resources for their hiring staff, and creating a system to manage and track discrimination complaints.

If you have experienced discrimination in the workplace or if you need to file an employment law lawsuit, please get in touch with one of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP’s offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside or Chicago.