• 14
  • July
    2011

About a month ago we wrote about the class-action gender discrimination lawsuit that was filed against Wal-Mart. The lawsuit was the largest class-action lawsuit that has been filed, and when the Supreme Court sided with Wal-Mart, many employees saw it as a disheartening sign.

Although the women did not win their class-action discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, other lawsuits have survived the ruling. Since the ruling against Wal-Mart's female workers, several other class-action lawsuits have been approved, and some people are willing to argue that the Wal-Mart case strengthened the subsequent lawsuits.

The Supreme Court stated that the 1.5 million women who were included in the class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart did not have enough in common to file jointly. However, that does not mean the women cannot file lawsuits. They will simply need to work with fewer women whose stories share more similarities.

And although 1.5 million people might not have enough in common, other large groups have been allowed to move forward with their class-action lawsuits. In the past month, federal judges have ruled that each of the following groups were allowed to file class-action lawsuits:

  • 600 employees from Tyco international Ltd suing on claims that they were underpaid
  • 700 employees from Starbucks Corp suing for overtime pay
  • 1,000 employees from HCR ManorCare filing a wage-and-hour claim

The above class-action lawsuits are small in comparison to the proposed lawsuit against Wal-Mart, but they still involve significant numbers of people. In addition, the cases do not involve allegations regarding gender discrimination, where it can be harder to prove consistent discrimination.

Source: Reuters, "Analysis: Wal-Mart ruling no knock-out blow for class actions," Moira Herbst, 12 July 2011