Parra v. Bashas’, Inc.
U.S. District Court, District of Arizona

This class action lawsuit alleges that Bashas’ discriminates against Latino workers in pay and working conditions in its Food City stores. Bashas’ operates grocery stores under three different monikers: Food City, Bashas’, and A.J.’s Fine Foods. While the hourly workforce in Bashas’ and A.J.’s stores are predominantly white, the Food City workers are disproportionately Latino. The case, filed in April 2002, charges the following discriminatory practices:

• The pay scale for Food City workers was lower in most job positions than the identical positions in Bashas’ and A.J.’ stores;
• Within Food City Stores, Latino employees were paid less than their white counterparts in similar positions; and
• Working conditions (in terms of safety and sanitation) within Food City were inferior to those of Bashas’ and A.J.’s stores.

In August 2005, the district court certified the working conditions claim but denied class certification of the unequal pay claim. In July 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s denial of class certification of the unequal pay claim and remanded the case back to the district court for further consideration. In July 2009, Bashas’ Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the litigation has been stayed pending resolution of the bankruptcy