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Mars Settles Gender Bias Lawsuit

Mars Super Markets will pay $275,000 and provide "significant remedial relief" to settle a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency said.

BALTIMORE — Mars Super Markets here will pay $275,000 and provide "significant remedial relief" to settle a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency said.

According to the EEOC, Mars refused to hire part-time deli clerk Gail Brown as an apprentice meat cutter at a Dundalk, Md., store because she is a woman.

Mars, which operates 16 grocery stores in the Baltimore area, had an ongoing pattern of failing to hire women as meat cutters, the EEOC said, and also failed to preserve various personnel and employment records, which also violated federal law.

The settlement, pending court approval, mandates that Brown will receive back pay, compensatory damages and attorney's fees of $118,000. The decree also provides back pay to other female applicants for the position of meat cutter that were denied hire because of their gender.

Mars also agreed to extend job offers to women who were denied jobs and take other remedial actions.

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