SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals here remanded a case filed by Bashas' employees back to a lower court last week and asked that the judge reconsider whether the claims should proceed as a class action.
The suit, filed in 2003 by Hispanic workers at the chain's Hispanic-oriented Food City division with assistance from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, charges the company with discrimination in pay and working conditions against Hispanic employees.
A Bashas' spokeswoman told SN last week, “The union has no evidence of discrimination.”
The U.S. District Court in Arizona had originally certified the proposed class in terms of working conditions but denied certification on the basis of pay, arguing a lack of commonality.
The case stems from an ongoing situation involving eight stores that Bashas' acquired years ago from a company whose employees were part of the UFCW — stores for which the company and the union have never been able to negotiate a contract, although Bashas' said it pays the same wages and offers the same benefits to employees at those stores as it does to employees at its non-unionized stores.
In a separate ruling last week, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge declined to dismiss charges against several UFCW employees being sued by Bashas' on charges of intentionally interfering with the chain's operations to extort an agreement for union representation.
