Sex discrimination class action against Wal-Mart may proceed
April 26th, 2010 by Kurt Niland
A federal appeals court dealt Wal-Mart a huge blow today when it ruled that the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history may proceed as a class action. The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2001 by a group of six female Wal-Mart employees, could potentially affect more than 1.5 million women throughout the country, a 2001 estimate found.
The plaintiffs allege that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest private employer, paid female employees less than their male coworkers, promoted females less frequently than men, and made them wait longer for promotions than men when they were given the opportunity to move up.
The original lawsuit was filed by Wal-Mart employee Betty Dukes in 2001. Dukes and six other plaintiffs contend that Wal-Mart routinely passed women up for consideration for management positions, keeping them in lower level jobs such as cashiers with little hope of promotion. One plaintiff said she was unqualified to manage because she couldn’t stack 50-pound bags of dog food.
The plaintiffs moved to form the class action in 2001, extending the case to all women who had worked at Wal-Mart since 1998. A trial judge certified the case as a class action in 2004.
The suit will now cover the claims of women who have worked at Wal-Mart since June 2001. A lower court will determine whether additional women who were employed by Wal-Mart between 1998 and 2001 may join the class action.
Today’s sharply divided 6-5 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco left Wal-Mart considering a final appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The retail giant has fought the lawsuit vigorously since 2001, arguing the group of women represented by the class action would be too large and unmanageable and that cases involving gender discrimination should be tried individually.
An 11-member panel that heard Wal-Mart’s arguments last year disagreed. “Although the size of this class action is large, mere size does not render a case unmanageable,” the court stated.
Given the potential number of plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit, a ruling against Wal-Mart could cost the retailer tens of billions of dollars.