Albert-sons Inc. has agreed to promote more women and Hispanics and expand training programs as part of a $29.5 million discrimination lawsuit settlement.

The settlement includes $23 million for about 20,000 present and past female employees, lawyers said Monday. A labor union and a federal judge must still approve the settlement."The idea was to get the women out of the checkstands and into the manager's booth," said David Borgen, a lawyer for five women who filed the suit in May 1992.

Albertsons is the nation's sixth-largest retail food and drug store operator, with 655 stores in 19 states, including Utah, as of last month.

The suit accused Albertsons of maintaining "two different work forces" at its 144 California stores, where women and minorities were relegated to the lowest-paying jobs with little opportunity for advancement.

Women were largely restricted to "dead-end" delicatessen and bakery jobs and to the checkout counter where promotions were rare, the suit said. It also alleged inadequate training programs for women and Hispanics seeking promotions and discrimination in the allocation of work hours.

Similar accusations were made against Lucky Stores Inc. in a 1988 suit, by the same law firm, on behalf of 10,000 female employees in 188 Northern California markets. Lucky has fought the suit at every stage, but a federal judge has found systematic sex discrimination, calculated back pay at $90 million or more, and begun consideration of additional damages.

After the rulings against Lucky, "Albertsons saw the handwriting on the wall and approached us for early settlement negotiations," said Borgen.

Albertsons said in a statement that it believes its employment practices were legal but decided to settle to save time and money.

"Even if you believe in your cause, you have to acknowledge the risk of litigation . . . especially in light of what's happened to some of our competitors in California, the Lucky case being the most significant," said Michael Read, a spokesman at Albertsons headquarters in Boise, Idaho.

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Mari Mayeda, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said one reason for the early settlement was that Al-bert-son's "had already shown that it had taken significant steps to consider and promote women and minorities to management positions."

The settlement requires training programs to be open to all employees and sets goals of promoting women and Hispanics in proportion to the number who seek advancement. Other goals are set for increased hours for part-time employees. Albertsons can recover $500,000 by exceeding specified goals, Borgen said.

He said the cash settlement would be available only to women because little data exists on discrimination against the small number of Hispanic employees. Women who have worked at Albertsons since April 5, 1987, would be eligible for compensation, under a formula that has not yet been worked out, Borgen said.

The settlement also includes $4.5 million in fees and expenses for the plaintiffs' lawyers. The settlement is scheduled to go before U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong for approval early next year.

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