PARIS: A lawyer for Moroccan railway workers says France’s labour court has ordered national railway to pay $169 million in compensation after finding that Moroccans had faced discrimination in benefits compared with their French colleagues.

The ruling on Monday came in the case of more than 800 Moroccans hired by SNCF in the beginning of the 1970s as contractual employees, not under the regular railwayman contract available to French — and later European — employees. Most of the Moroccans have since retired with far less in pension and health benefits. The court ordered payments averaging 200,000 euros ($225,000) for each worker, for a total of about 150 million euros.