Plan B Forum

Wal-Mart Stores has asked the US Supreme Court to block female employees from suing on behalf of as many as 1.5 million women in what would be the largest gender-bias suit against a private employer in US history.

The world’s largest retailer today appealed a 6-5 lower court decision allowing women who have worked at Wal-Mart since 2001 to be part of a single class-action lawsuit. The justices likely will say later this year whether they will hear the case.

Saying the workers are seeking billions of dollars in back pay, Wal-Mart told the justices that the claims of workers around the country were too diverse to proceed as a single case under the rules that govern federal lawsuits.

“The class is larger than the active-duty personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard combined --making it the largest employment class action in history by several orders of magnitude,” argued the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company, the largest US private employer.

Wal-Mart is accused of paying women less than men for the same jobs and giving female workers fewer promotions. The lawsuit was filed in 2001 by six women, including Betty Dukes, a Wal-Mart greeter in Pittsburg, California.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-bu ... 13sif.html