Wal-Mart is asking a federal appeals court in San Francisco to dismiss a sex discrimination lawsuit. A lower court ruling allowed a class-action case to move forward. It involves more than 1 million current and former female employees of the world's largest retailer. From member station KQED in San Francisco, Sarah Varney reports.
Lawyers pursuing the class action claim Wal-Mart systematically denied raises and promotions to women and paid them less than men doing the same job. Last year, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled there was enough evidence of discrimination to warrant a class-action trial.
At a hearing yesterday, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals appeared unlikely to grant Wal-Mart's request to dismiss the class-action. Judge Harry Pregerson called the lower court's ruling thorough and painstakingly detailed. Judge Andrew Kleinfeld pointed out that women make up two thirds of all hourly Wal-Mart employees but only one third of salary workers. Wal-Mart attorney Theodore Boutrous didn't dispute those figures, but he argued payroll data shows the company treats women and men who are performing similar jobs equally in nearly all of its stores. After the hearing, he spoke outside the court.
"The allegations and the experiences of the six people who brought the case are simply not common or typical of what happens in the Wal-Mart's stores around the country, and there are statistics to show that."
Boutrous says Wal-Mart's 3400 store managers make salary and promotion decisions independently. He argued that the women who brought the case and others who alleged discrimination should file individual lawsuits. But Brad Seligman, an attorney representing the women, says Wal-Mart will only change employment practices if women can sue as a group.
"Individual suits mean nothing to a giant like Wal-Mart. They can lose a zillion suits. They won't change their policies. A nationwide class-action is the one lever that can have them finally decide they gotta change what they are doing."
But even if the case is allowed to move forward, says University of California Berkeley law professor, Ann Josef, it may never make it to trial. "Wal-Mart will face exceptional pressure from the stock market and from others to settle, and not to actually have it play out to completion with an actual damage award coming out of the federal court system.
The court could take up to a year to decide whether the case can go to trial. If it does and the women's attorneys prove gender discrimination, Wal-Mart could be forced to pay billions of dollars in back pay and punitive damages.
For NPR news, I am Sarah Varney in San Francisco.
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