Wal-Mart Sex-Bias Suit Given Class-Action Status
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
and CONSTANCE L. HAYS
Published: June 23, 2004
William Thomas Cain for The New York Times
According to the lawsuit that six women have filed against Wal-Mart Stores on behalf of 1.6 million others, about 65 percent of the company’s hourly workers are women, but only 33 percent of its managers are.
federal judge ruled yesterday that a lawsuit that accuses Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of discriminating against women can proceed as a class action covering about 1.6 million current and former employees, making it by far the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in United States history.
The lawsuit, brought in 2001 by six women, accuses Wal-Mart of systematically paying women less than men and offering women fewer opportunities for promotion. The lawsuit stated that while 65 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly employees are women, only 33 percent of Wal-Mart's managers are.
While not ruling on the merits of the lawsuit, the judge, Martin J. Jenkins of the United States District Court in San Francisco, wrote that the case was "historic in nature, dwarfing other employment discrimination cases that came before it."
Wal-Mart said it would appeal the class-action certification, arguing that the company did not discriminate and that decisions about raises and promotion were made by individual stores, not at the corporate level.
As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart has become the target of dozens of lawsuits regarding off-the-clock work and other employment practices. Indeed, because of its huge size, the company has become a lightning rod for criticism. Famed for its low prices, it has become one of the biggest sellers of products from detergent to DVD's. Wal-Mart's power helps consumers as the company pushes manufacturers and suppliers to reduce prices on many items. But Wal-Mart's influence is at times more far reaching: entertainment companies, for example, say they edit music albums and movies to suit Wal-Mart's conservative sensibilities.
Such controversies, however, pale compared with the potential the job- discrimination lawsuit has to hurt the company's image and bottom line. Shares of Wal-Mart fell 1.6 percent yesterday in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Worried that this case would anger and perhaps chase away many women shoppers, Wal-Mart has spent millions of dollars on television spots showing how well it treats women. And this month it announced that it would increase wages and improve some workplace practices at the corporate and store level.
The lawyers who brought the case say their goal is nothing less than to press Wal-Mart to change the way it treats its more than 700,000 employees who are women. These lawyers say they will not settle the case unless Wal-Mart makes ironclad pledges to treat women better and agrees to a substantial settlement, larger than any previous settlement in a job-discrimination case.
"This is the largest civil rights class action ever certified," said Brad Seligman, executive director of the Impact Fund, a nonprofit group that is the lead counsel for the women. "We hope to fundamentally change Wal-Mart since Wal-Mart is the industry leader. We think changing Wal-Mart for the better is going to help change everybody for the better."
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