• 07
  • November
    2011

The California class action gender discrimination lawsuit against Walmart is far from over. Plaintiffs in the case are 1.5 million workers who allege Walmart discriminated against them because they were female. Their case suffered a setback last summer when the Supreme Court dissolved the class that the California courts had certified by a 5 to 4 vote.

The Supreme Court gave three reasons for dismantling the class. First, the court ruled that the plaintiffs' individual cases against the retail giant failed to prove that Walmart implemented a company-wide discrimination policy. The court also noted that different plaintiffs sought different remedies; some wanted the courts to order Walmart to give them back pay, while others merely wanted the courts to order Walmart to stop discriminating. Finally, the court questiond the plaintiffs' proof of discrimination, which involved extrapolating sample data results to the entire class.

Attorneys for plaintiffs have changed their strategy. They announced recently that they will file regional lawsuits that separate the class into more manageable groups of plaintiffs. They will base their claims on information gleaned from interviews with plaintiffs and supervisors instead of relying on statistical extrapolations.

Defense attorneys say that the new suits are "deja vu all over again," and that each individual Walmart supervisor has the authority to decide whether or not to apply company policies. According to the defense attorneys, the supervisors' discretion will again defeat the class action.

Walmart's position is that, even if Walmart had a national policy of gender discrimination, each plaintiff's case should be tried individually to determine whether her supervisor followed the discrimination policy.

Source: Law.com, "Dukes' Back From the Dead," Ginny LaRoe, Oct. 27, 2011