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Walgreens deal to end race-based bias case

African-American managers will split $20M.

By Mark Albright, Times Staff Writer
Published July 14, 2007

About 10,000 African-American Walgreens store-level management workers will split $20-million under a settlement agreed to this week in a racial discrimination class-action lawsuit brought against the nation's biggest drugstore chain.

Walgreens will pay $24.4-million to settle the case that with interest accumulated will provide enough for a $5.5-million payment to the team of lawyers who organized the case, one part of which emanated from Florida.

Workers will not need to file a claim, but will be contacted to see if they want to opt out. U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy must still approve the settlement, but attorneys hope checks are mailed by the end of this year.

The Deerfield, Ill.,-based chain admitted no guilt in settling the case heard in East St. Louis, Ill. But Walgreens stood accused of racial discrimination in promotion and by relegating too many of its African-American store management to stores that serve predominantly black neighborhoods.

Filed in 2005, the case was based on the experience of 14 Walgreens store managers and pharmacists, four of whom worked in a variety of Jacksonville stores. They alleged that none of them could get transferred away from inner-city locations to more prosperous suburban stores that offered opportunities for higher pay and bonuses.

Thanks to a complicated formula that affects how much each worker will get, attorneys did not specify what the average payment will be.

Those in line for a share include all black Walgreens pharmacists, pharmacy managers, store managers and assistant store managers whose payments will be based on the length of time they held each of the affected positions since June 20, 2001.

Additionally, about a fifth of the cash will be split up among those assigned to work in a lengthy list of stores in low-income neighborhoods that also have a large African-American population.

Settlement details will be posted on the Internet at a Web site not yet set up. Once it is, the site used by the plaintiffs lawyers -walgreensclass.com - will be altered to redirect those who want to check the status of the settlement administration.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 23:30:52]