• 15
  • February
    2012

Last year we reported about a Supreme Court decision that denied a nationwide class-action lawsuit brought by 1.5 million female employees. The high court based its decision on the fact that the class of employees was basically too broad.

This decision did not mean that it was okay if Wal-Mart was in fact subjecting its female employees to discriminatory practices, such as paying them less than their male counterparts and failing to grant job promotions in the same manner as they do for males. On the contrary, it simply meant that smaller groups of employees would be required to file such a lawsuit to be heard.

Now, the first among those lawsuits has been brought by the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of 500 current and former female employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from a 5 state region. It is expected that similar such lawsuits will be filed on behalf of female employees from other regions across the United States, including California.

Female employees have the right to work free from sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. If women are denied pay raises and promotions based on their gender, this is a form of discrimination and makes for a hostile work environment. Though Wal-Mart says it has strict policies against discrimination in the workplace, statistics revealing otherwise may place those policies in question.

Hopefully with the filing of these regional class-action lawsuits representing smaller numbers of female employees, these women, who believe that they have been discriminated against, will have their day in court.

Source: Los Angeles Times, "Female Wal-Mart Employees file sex-discrimination claims,"