WALMART WINS---WHAT NOW? BY L. D. SLEDGE, J.D.

 

  The last blog was written prior to the decision by the US Supreme Court refusing to allow the huge class action involving 1.5 million claimants to proceed.  The lawsuit claimed that Wal-Mart systematically paid women less and did not provide equal opportunity for advancement. It contended that all women employed by Wal-Mart since 1998 should be part of the class.

    The court’s decision was not about the discrimination itself, but around a procedural issue, and whether the technical rules for forming a class were followed. The court decided that the group could not be certified as a class.

   To form a class, you have to have so many members that it is impracticable to have separate trials for all of them. The Wal-Mart women unequivocally met that standard. But the members of the class have to share a well-defined common interest, and it must be clear that resolving the cases of the few actual representatives would effectively resolve all the cases of all the class members.
 

  The Supreme Court just didn’t see that literally millions of separate employment decisions relating to women in many different jobs, could be viewed as meeting the class requirements.
 

   Having been involved in several class actions myself, I am aware of the difficulty in getting a group with similar claims certified as a class. In this case, I am sure there were political and social-economic considerations. The ramifications of a lawsuit of this magnitude being permitted to continue to jury trial are beyond comprehension, for a possible judgment could be in the billions, and like locusts these suits would proliferate through every large corporation in the US, creating more economic disruption than the losses to individuals by not being treated properly.  But it did teach Walmart a lesson and now they have largely corrected these errors, and other big companies have taken that lesson seriously as well. So all is well that ends well--I guess it ended well for Corporate America—what’s good for the duck isn’t necessarily good for the hunter.  Here the duck won. The hunter will have to reload.

   My question is now what can employees do when seeking redress as a group against a large company. For the time being, the companies are safe if they watch their step. For more, read the following link

http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/articles/HR_Policies_Procedures_WalMart_Decision_Supreme_Court.aspx?Source=HAC&Effort=15