Update, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 6:10 p.m.
The Supreme Court is deciding whether more than a million women who have worked and do work at Wal-Mart will be able to take part in a class action lawsuit against the retailer.
“Go get ‘em,” said Evangeline Lemos of Lapeer when she heard about the sex discrimination suit.
Lemos worked at several Wal-Mart stores in mid-Michigan over the course of eight years. She says she witnessed the company give men bigger raises and better promotions than women.
It is exactly what Christine Kwapnoski, one of several women who started the lawsuit against Wal-Mart, says happened.
"I had gone in and asked, 'What is it that I need to do to get promoted?' And I was told that I needed to blow the cobwebs off my make-up and to doll up," Kwapnoski told NBC.
She and the other women who started the lawsuit say Wal-Mart allowed discrimination because it saved them money. They say the store needs to be held accountable, and that is why they want a class action lawsuit.
The Supreme Court took up the issue of whether that should happen on Tuesday. The Court did not hear any arguments on whether or not Wal-Mart discriminated against any workers. Justices only heard arguments on whether the case should be allowed to move forward as a class action lawsuit.
Wal-Mart Vice President Gisel Ruiz said the company has a non-discrimination policy and there is no evidence of discrimination.
"When we hear issues coming from our associates, we take action immediately,” said Ruiz said at a press conference. “There are consequences for people who violate those policies."
Ruiz says a lawsuit this big is simply not fair, because one suit could not represent so many women in different jobs, at thousands of stores.
Flint-area attorney Tom Pabst, who specializes in employment litigation, says if Wal-Mart wins before the Supreme Court, the women suing do not necessarily lose.
“The individual women are not going to win or lose,” said Pabst. “They’re still going to have their cases heard, and frankly, for some it will be a blessing. They’ll get more money in front of a jury.”
Attorney Pabst says he hasn’t handled any cases against Wal-Mart involving sex discrimination, but sex discrimination is more common in the work place than many realize.
He says this lawsuit should send businesses a message.
“I think women should be paid the same for the same work. That is the law of our land. It is the American way of doing things.”
If the Supreme Court rules for Wal-Mart, Lemos says workers like her will lose out. She says she doesn’t have the resources to start a legal battle alone, but plans to sign on if the case moves forward as a class action suit.
“I want to send Wal-Mart the message. Women are just as smart as men, and there is no reason why they don’t consider them.“
The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the case by the end of June.
If you want to find out more about the class action lawsuit, including how to take part if it goes through, click here
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Original Story, Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 10:45 a.m.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a huge sex discrimination case against Wal-Mart.
The court will decide whether hundreds of thousands of former and current Wal-Mart employees can sue the store in a class action suit. The women say they were repeatedly turned down for promotions, while men who were no more qualified advanced.
Federal courts have ruled the lawsuit should move forward, but Wal-Mart says it is impossible to get a fair deal. The chain says it is impossible to lump together the experiences of thousands of women in one suit. They worked different positions in its more than three thousand stores.
“Wal‐Mart is attempting to dismantle the Supreme Court’s employment discrimination class action jurisprudence,” says Plaintiffs’ counsel Jocelyn Larkin in a press release. “Such far reaching changes to the law would require the Court to overrule 45 years of civil rights and class action precedent. This would rule out certification of all but the smallest employment discrimination cases —and that’s not what Congress intended.”
NBC25 wants to know what you think about this. Do you think this lawsuit is too big to be fair? Have you ever experienced discrimination at Walmart? Let us know by leaving your comments below.
