The New York Times reports that attorneys representing plaintiffs in an ambitious sexual discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart will ask a federal court to expand it to include all 700,000 women who worked at Wal-Mart from 1996 to 2001. If the court agrees, it would make the suit the largest employment discrimination class action in American history.
The lawsuit originally was filed in 2001 in federal court in San Francisco, is built on a statistic put forth by the attorneys: that in 2001, women made up 65 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly employees but only 33 percent of its managers. The suit also claims wide pay disparities depending on gender.
Wal-Mart officials say that the suit is just an attempt by attorneys to squeeze a company with deep pockets. While they dispute the statistics, Wal-Mart management says it will only provide its own version of the facts when the case goes to court.
The lawsuit originally was filed in 2001 in federal court in San Francisco, is built on a statistic put forth by the attorneys: that in 2001, women made up 65 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly employees but only 33 percent of its managers. The suit also claims wide pay disparities depending on gender.
Wal-Mart officials say that the suit is just an attempt by attorneys to squeeze a company with deep pockets. While they dispute the statistics, Wal-Mart management says it will only provide its own version of the facts when the case goes to court.
- KC's View:
- Wal-Mart may not be named “Target,” but it sure seems to spend a lot of time with a bull’s-eye on its back…
