Court to look at huge sex bias suit vs. Wal-Mart

[onehandle]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider whether to keep alive the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history, a case that claims Wal-Mart pays women less than men and promotes women less frequently. The justices stepped into a dispute that could involve billions of dollars in back pay for 500,000 to 1.5 million women who work or once worked at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest private employer. But the case also could affect other class-action lawsuits, in which people with similar interests increase their leverage by joining together in a single claim.

Wal-Mart, backed by many business interests, praised the court's intervention. "The current confusion in class action law is harmful for everyone — employers, employees, businesses of all types and sizes, and the civil justice system," the company said in a statement. "These are exceedingly important issues that reach far beyond this particular case."

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., is appealing a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the class-action lawsuit could go to trial. The company says that allowing the large number of claims to go forward would set off an avalanche of similar class-action lawsuits in California and the other Western states overseen by the 9th Circuit.

But the lawyers representing the women who are suing Wal-Mart say there have been only eight such suits nationwide — and none within the 9th Circuit — since the first appeals court ruling in favor of the women nearly four years ago. "This threatened landslide of class-action litigation has not materialized," the lawyers said in legal papers filed with the Supreme Court.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_supreme_court_wal_mart_discrimination

[fatbuckel]

1. I hope Wally-mart goes down.

[MedicalAdmin]

2. If this goes against them it won't even be a small bump in the road.

However they should lose.

As an aside, if there is anyone there who ever gets to see any of the Walmart Mob at any time ... say jogging alongside some road somewhere ... or dining in your restaurant ... or anything. Consider doing us all a favor and accidently pull the car over just enough to create road paste, or accidently drop cyanide into the deserts.

I would never advocate violence, but it would be more humane than the pitchforks and torches that are coming.

[delightfulstar]

3. They should lose on principle alone.

Walmart is one big equal-opportunity employment FAIL. They've been playing this unfair pay game for too long. Time for them to get their due. It may be a drop in the bucket to them, but it's something.

[cory777]

4. Court to look at huge Wal-Mart sex bias lawsuit

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will consider whether to keep alive the largest job discrimination case in U.S. history, a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that grew from a half-dozen women to a class action that could involve billions of dollars for more than a half million female workers.

Wal-Mart is trying to halt the lawsuit, with the backing of many other big companies concerned about rules for class-action cases — those in which people with similar interests increase their leverage by joining in a single claim. Class actions against discount seller Costco and the tobacco industry are among pending claims that the high court's decision might alter.

The suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. contends that women at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores are paid less and promoted less often than men. The case the high court accepted on Monday will not examine whether the claims are true, only whether they can be tried together.

Estimates of the size of the class range from 500,000 to 1.5 million women who work or once worked for Wal-Mart.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_supreme_court_wal_mart_discrimination

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