Supreme Court Case Could Effect Most Businesses With Employees

Be fair, attentive, and customers
will return.

It's an issue involving whether
the justices should permit
certification of the largest
class action employment lawsuit
in United States history. The
dispute is against Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. over alleged gender
bias in pay and promotions.
Arguments in the case are
scheduled Tuesday morning and
ruling can be expected by late
June.

If the class action passes,
hundreds of thousands of women
could join in the largest
discrimination claim of its
kind. Tens of billions of
dollars or more in damages.

The court case is among the
biggest of the current term,
and could establish binding
standards over liability
involving companies large
and small.
It started with six women
from California, unknown
to each other, initially.

"I'm a fighter if nothing
else, and so are all the
other women that are
involved," Christine
Kwapnoski, one of the
original plaintiffs.

Kwapnoski, 46, started at
Sam's Club retail warehouse,
part of the Wal-Mart brand,
in 1986, relocated to a store
in Concord, California.
When 2000 rolled-around, she
was the longest tenured hourly
employee at the store, but
claims she was being paid
"virtually the same" as male
associates with half her
experience. She was promoted
in 2001, two weeks after the
lawsuit was filed, and is
still at the company.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Joseph
Sellers, explains that there's
a "corporate culture" at Wal-Mart,
where female associates are
treated as second class
employees, and that the company's
"strong, centralized structure
fosters or facilitates gender
stereotyping and discrimination,"
which flows down to individual stores.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110328091100writ.nb/topstory.html