Douglas Ivester, Coke's chairman and chief executive, said in a prepared statement and in an e-mail to all employees that the company believes the lawsuit is without merit.

"Discrimination at the Coca-Cola Co. is not tolerated," Ivester said. "If discrimination is alleged, we investigate it. If we find it, we act to stop it. Our goal is the fair, equitable and honest treatment of all of our associates."

One former and three current black employees at Coca-Cola Co. (KO) filed a lawsuit alleging a pattern of racial discrimination in pay, promotions and performance reviews.

"Although Coca-Cola has carefully cultivated African-Americans as consumers of its product by public pronouncements, strategic alliances and specific marketing strategies, it has failed to place the same importance on its African-American employees," thelawsuit states.

The Washington law firm Mehri Malkin and Ross filed the lawsuit in Coke's hometown, Atlanta, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Cyrus Mehri was the attorney who represented black employees in a racial bias case that Texaco Inc. (TX) settled in 1996 with an agreement to pay $176 million over five years.

The lawsuit against Coke requests class action status for all African-American salaried employees from April 22, 1995, to the present. The employees are seeking injunctive relief and unspecified punitive and compensatory damages from the company.

The lawsuit accuses Coca-Cola of paying black employees less than whites for the same jobs, of denying blacks promotions based on race and of giving black employees poor evaluations.

Pamela Coukos, an attorney at Mehri Malkin and Ross, said African-Americans at Coca-Cola ran into a glass ceiling and glass walls.

"African Americans who advance to a high level position tend to be in areas that are away fromrevenue-generating parts of the company," Coukos told Reuters.

Of the four named plaintiffs, one is an administrative assistant, another is a security guard and the third is an information-systems analyst. The fourth worked at Coke for 13 years.

Three of the four filed formal discrimination complaints with the company, and two of those three also filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Coke found all of the complaints to be without merit. One of the complaints to the EEOC found no discrimination, and the other is pending.