About 10,000 current and former African-American workers at Walgreen Co. stores will share in a $24 million race discrimination settlement approved Tuesday by a federal judge.

The lawsuit, filed against the national drugstore chain by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2007, alleged that African-Americans were unfairly denied promotions or assigned to lower-performing stores.

The proposed consent decree was reached in July. Since then, said Walgreen’s spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce, the chain “has been actively involved in implementing its terms.”

It represents one of the largest race-based settlements handled by the EEOC.

Bruce said that Walgreen now ranks as the industry leader in its percentage of store managers who are African-American (17 percent of its total managers, compared to an industry average of 9 percent).

It also leads competitors in its percentage of African-American pharmacists (15 percent, compared to the industry average of 10 percent), she said.

A fairness hearing in federal court in Illinois determined that the terms of the settlement were fair, reasonable and adequate.

Johnny Tucker, a Walgreen store manager in Independence who was a lead plaintiff in the case, attended the fairness hearing.

“I look forward to all of the positive changes this settlement will bring to the company,” Tucker said.

Lawyers for the EEOC said the judge’s approval ends the EEOC’s litigation and a private class-action lawsuit filed in 2005 on behalf of 14 workers.

EEOC General Counsel Ronald Cooper said the case was “a good example of the commission’s renewed emphasis on class and systemic litigation and furthers the agency’s E-RACE Initiative, which is designed to address major issues of race and color discrimination.”

The EEOC will continue to monitor compliance with the settlement terms, which also call for Walgreen to retain outside consultants to review its employment practices.

Walgreen is the nation’s largest drugstore chain. It has more than 6,000 stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico. [MORE]