A federal judge has ordered the Dial Corporation to pay more than $3 million to resolve a sex discrimination suit alleging the company's Armour Star Meat Packing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, discriminated against women by rejecting them for entry-level production jobs because they had failed a strength test.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which brought the lawsuit, says Chief Judge Ronald E. Longstaff of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa entered a judgment providing that 52 women will be offered jobs at Dial and will share approximately $3,390,000.

The EEOCs lawsuit, filed in September 2002, claimed that Dials use of a strength test, which required the repeated lifting of 35 pounds to a height of 65 inches, discriminated against women, since, according to the agency, only approximately 40 percent of female applicants passed the test, while virtually all male applicants passed the test. Dial claimed that the test was necessary in order to reduce injuries, but Judge Longstaff disagreed with the company's argument that a business necessity justified the test.

Dial has made a job offer to each of the 52 women, and so far 14 have accepted those offers, according to the agency. Each of the 52 will receive back pay in amounts ranging from $2,400 to $164,500, depending on the length of time since the class member was rejected, and the amount she was able to earn at other jobs in the meantime.

The judgment also provides that six of the class members will receive compensatory damages of $5,000 each as determined by the jury, and that the 12 women who were rejected because of the test after the jury's verdict will receive an additional $9,000 each.