given green light against Wal-Mart
The case is estimated to
cover more than 1.5 million women, including current and former employees at
Wal-Mart, which is the largest private employer in the
In a split 2-1 verdict, the
appeals court in
The majority ruling said the
city's district court, when it allowed the case to proceed in mid-2004, "did not
abuse its discretion when it certified the class."
"Although the size of this
class action is large, mere size does not render a case unmanageable," it
added.
The status enables many more
plaintiffs to join the lawsuit, and be eligible to receive a share of any
compensation that results.
Tuesday's ruling applied only
to the technical requirements required to confer the class-action status, and
not to the merits of the case.
Wal-Mart said it would demand
a new appeals hearing by a bigger panel of judges, and also go to the
"This is just another step in
what will be a very long process, and we are still in the early stages of the
case," said the company's lead counsel, Theodore Boutrous.
"We are optimistic about our
chances for obtaining relief from this ruling as the case
progresses."
The sex bias case adds to the
bad press endured for years by Wal-Mart, which has provoked anger among trade
unionists for its employment practices and among conservationists for driving
smaller stores out of business.
In March 2005, Wal-Mart
settled a criminal investigation into its use of illegal immigrant labor with an
11-million-dollar payment to the
According to the
Their initial suit prompted
an outpouring of claims from women throughout the country, resulting in the
largest civil action ever brought against a private
company.
According to court documents,
Wal-Mart employs more than 1.2 million employees in the
Wal-Mart, however, has
maintained that because promotions are largely made on a store-by-store basis,
discrimination was not systemic.
"Wal-Mart has strong equal
employment opportunity policies, and fosters female leadership both among its
associates and in the larger business world," said Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's
human resources chief.
The plaintiffs' claims
"simply are not representative of the experiences of women working at Wal-Mart,
including my own, and today's decision has nothing to do with whether the
plaintiffs' allegations are true," she said.
In a dissenting opinion,
appeals court judge Andrew Kleinfeld said the class-action status was both
unfair to Wal-Mart and to any women who had suffered sex
discrimination.
If the plaintiffs win, he
wrote, "Women who were fired or not promoted for good reasons will take money
from Wal-Mart they do not deserve, and get reinstated or promoted as well. This
is 'rough justice' indeed."
On a static day's trading in
______