Wow. Wal-Mart to Face Massive Class-Action Suit Over Pay Gap
A sharply divided federal appeals court exposed Wal-Mart to billions in legal damages when it ruled on Monday that a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination can go to trial.
In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the world’s largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs and that female employees receive fewer promotions and have to wait longer for those promotions than male counterparts.
Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote a blistering dissent, joined by four of her colleagues. “No court has ever certified a class like this one, until now. And with good reason,” Ikuta wrote. “In this case, six women who have worked in 13 of Wal-Mart’s 3,400 stores seek to represent every woman who has worked in those stores over the course of the last decade — a class estimated in 2001 to include more than 1.5 million women.”
Thanks to Slark Pope for bringing this to our attention. UPDATE: Read the fresh ABC story on the case here.
