On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that a gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart can move forward as a class action case. The court was bitterly divided over the issue, and the plaintiffs won the appeal by a narrow 6-5 margin. With more than one million women listed as plaintiffs, this will become the largest employment discrimination class action lawsuit in the history of our legal system.
The class action lawsuit was originally filed in 2001 and has been mired in appeals ever since. Monday’s decision now sets a course for an eventual trial. If successful, the plaintiff class of more than a million women may recover billions of dollars in damages from Wal-Mart.
The class action lawsuit charges Wal-Mart with systematically paying women lower wages than men, offering them smaller raises and fewer opportunities for upward mobility within the company. According to the plaintiff class, only 33% of Wal-Mart’s managers were women while 65% of their hourly employees are female.
Wal-Mart plans to appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court. They argued that this case lacks merit as a class action suit. Rather, allegations of discrimination should only reflect those few women who initially came forward as claiming to have experienced such unfair workplace practices.
The large size of the plaintiff class deterred several judges from voting to approve the lawsuit. However, a narrow majority of judges felt it would not pose an unwieldy obstacle to justice being served. As part of the ruling, women who worked at Wal-Mart at the time the lawsuit was filed but no longer work there may be removed from the lawsuit. This would substantially reduce the size of the plaintiff class.
If you have an employment discrimination claim in the Denver, Colorado area, please contact the lawyers at Burg, Simpson, Eldredge, Hersh & Jardine, P.C. today to schedule your free initial consultation.
Written by Andrew Martin: professional blogger and guru of misfortune.
