What’s going on with Wal-Mart? Recently, news of one of the largest sex-discrimination lawsuits in U.S. history has been on the tips of the tongues of employees and people seeking jobs in retail.
In a very close vote, 5-4, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and ruled in favor of the retailer. The class-action lawsuit involved too many women in too many scenarios that the court deemed it was unable to incorporate them all into a sweeping suit.
Justice Antonin Scalia explained, “Because respondents provide no convincing proof of a company-wide discriminatory pay and promotion policy, we have concluded that they have not established the existence of any common question."
The justices unanimously agreed that the women as a whole were not entitled to sue for back pay as a class. Over 1.5 million female employees claimed they were unequally compensated and promoted compared to their male coworkers. Some women have stronger cases than others.
They are free to pursue individual claims but a class suit where fees are smaller and payouts are higher is now a no go and sets a precedent for other large corporations involved in similar legal matters. Had the court decided it was the other way around and sided with the plethora of plaintiffs it would have cost the super giant super fees and payouts exceeding the billions.
Wal-Mart isn’t out of the woods yet. The smaller suits are still to come which will inevitably cost millions of dollars worth of settlements and court fees. On top that Democratic lawmakers are reintroducing the Equal Rights Amendment in the wake of the court’s decision.
First introduced in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment has been a topic of discussion every year since. Currently the House bill has 159 House co-sponsors.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) who has been the sponsor since the 105th Congress states, “The Equal Rights Amendment is still needed because the only way for women to achieve permanent equality in the U.S. is to write it into the Constitution. Making women’s equality a constitutional right — after Congress passes and 38 states ratify the ERA — would place the United States on record, albeit more than 200 years late, that women are fully equal in the eyes of the law.”
By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for RetailGigsBlog.com, she is co-founder of design and promotion company. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.
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