Company denies, settles discrimination claims

Hunt Forest Products Inc. of Ruston will pay $300,000 to settle federal allegations of hiring discrimination at its facility in Natalbany.

That's just over $1,000 in back pay and interest for each of 298 applicants rejected for the job of utility worker in Natalbany from January 2004 to August 2005. They include 128 women and 170 African-Americans.

Hunt also agreed to hire 24 of those people, the department said in a news release.

The company, which denied wrongdoing, has a longstanding policy against any sort of discrimination, and bases hiring only on job requirements, human resources manager George T. Keys IV wrote.

"To our knowledge, absolutely no one has come forth with any complaint, or threat of complaint against HFP," he wrote.

He said the Labor Department based its complaint on statistical differences for entry-level jobs during an arbitrary 20-month period.

"We believe these alleged statistical anomalies are unfounded and are the result of flawed evaluation techniques on the Agency's part and incomplete recordkeeping on our part," he wrote.

He said Hunt settled to avoid the expense of a court fight, as a gesture of good faith and to focus on working for employees and customers.