Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the Nation's Largest Private Employer, Sued for Company-Wide Sex Discrimination San Francisco, CA. (June 19, 2001) - Six current and former Wal-Mart employees from California, Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Florida have filed a massive nationwide sex discrimination class action lawsuit today in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco) against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Case No. C 012252 MJJ). The case is believed to be the largest such suit ever filed against a private employer. The class action suit charges that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female employees in promotions, compensation and job assignments in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It claims that women are largely relegated to lower paying jobs and systematically denied advancement opportunities. Despite the fact that women comprise over 72% of the Wal-Mart sales workforce, a very small percentage is represented in the supervisory and managerial ranks: - Men hold 90% of Wal-Mart store manager positions.
- Less than one-third of store management overall at Wal-Mart is female -- a percentage far lower than the number of female managers employed by Wal-Mart's major competitors (56%), and lower than the percentage employed by its competitors back in 1975.
- There is only one woman among Wal-Mart's 20 top officers.
The class in this case may include more than an estimated 500,000 current and former female employees of Wal-Mart retail stores in America, including Wal-Mart discount stores, supercenters, neighborhood stores, and Sam's Club, making this action potentially the largest sex discrimination case ever litigated against a private employer. Wal-Mart's treatment of its female employees includes a sexually demeaning atmosphere, where female employees are told that "women do not make good managers", that "a trained monkey" could do their jobs, and that women with kids couldn't be managers. Wal-Mart, a global retail giant, reported sales in excess of $191 billion in 2000. Currently 3,153 stores are owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in the United States. Wal-Mart employs more women than any other company in the United States. "The industry leader should not be the discrimination leader. If Wal-Mart's top competitors are able to promote qualified women to more than half of their management jobs, why can't Wal-Mart?" said plaintiffs' lead counsel Brad Seligman, Executive Director of The Impact Fund, a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Berkeley, CA. "While women in America have made tremendous strides in the battle for equality, Wal-Mart is living in the America of thirty years ago. Wal-Mart should not be allowed to continue denying women an equal chance to advance and earn a living sufficient to support themselves and their families," says Sheila Thomas, Litigation Director of Equal Rights Advocates, and a member of the plaintiffs' legal team. "This lawsuit marks the D-Day assault that will shatter the glass ceiling for women at America's largest private employer." said plaintiffs' attorney Joseph M. Sellers, who heads the civil rights practice at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC of Washington, D.C., another of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. "We hope that Wal-Mart's systematic and harmful oppression of women will now be fully exposed," say Stephen Tinkler and Merit Bennett, partners of the Santa Fe and Honolulu law firm of Tinkler & Bennett, who have been litigating sexual harassment claims against Wal-Mart since 1995. The female plaintiffs are represented by The Impact Fund, Equal Rights Advocates, Public Justice Center (Baltimore) and the private law firms of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Davis Cowell & Bowe (SF) and Tinkler & Bennett (Santa Fe, NM and Honolulu, HI). Plaintiffs' counsel include some of the most experienced class action and sex discrimination attorneys in the country. A toll free number (1-877-WOMAN-WM (966-2696)) and a website have been set up for present and former female Wal-Mart workers to learn more about the case: www.walmartclass.com. A copy of the Complaint in the case, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is available there and at www.CMHT.com. For more information, please contact us at lawinfo@cmht.com.
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