SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals here has reversed a lower court ruling that denied certification of a class-action suit brought by Hispanic workers at some of Bashas' Food City stores — stores at which questions of whether the workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are in dispute. The suit, filed in 2003 with the assistance of union officials, charges Bashas' with discriminating against those employees in pay and working conditions because of their Hispanic origin. The U.S. District Court in Arizona had certified the proposed class in terms of working conditions but denied certification on the basis of pay, arguing a lack of commonality. In a press release issued late yesterday, the UFCW said the appeals court had reversed that decision on the basis that the district court had "abused its discretion in failing to find commonality in the plaintiffs' original class definition for the discriminatory pay claim." Bashas' officials could not be reach for comment.
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