Wal-Mart Settles Discrimination Suit for $12 M

Wal-Mart Settles Ky. Sex Discrimination Suit for $12 Million

Tresa Baldas

The National Law Journal

March 03, 2010

The nation's top employment cops have Wal-Mart Stores Inc. digging deeply into its pockets again, this time to settle allegations of sex discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced late Monday that the retail giant will pay more than $12 million to resolve claims that for years it denied jobs to female applicants at a distribution center in London, Ky.

According to the EEOC, from 1998 to 2005, the Wal-Mart distribution center regularly hired male applicants for certain warehouse positions, but excluded female applicants who were equally or better qualified. The EEOC said that Wal-Mart regularly used gender stereotypes in hiring for entry-level order filling positions. Furthermore, hiring officials allegedly told applicants that order filling positions were not suitable for women, and they hired mainly 18- to 25-year-old males for such jobs.

For its actions, the EEOC said, Wal-Mart will pay $11.7 million in back wages and compensatory damages, its share of employer taxes, and up to $250,000 in administrative fees.

"Let this major settlement serve as a warning: Employers must stop engaging in these outdated and sexist practices, or they will face severe legal consequences," said Acting EEOC Chairman Stuart Ishimaru in a statement.

Under the consent decree settling the suit, entered Monday, Wal-Mart is required to provide order filling jobs, as they become available, to eligible and interested female class members, as determined by a claims administrator. Wal-Mart will fill the first 50 available positions with female class members. For the next 50 positions, female class members will be offered every other job. Thereafter, every third position will be offered to female class members.

A settlement administrator will contact class members and distribute the proceeds to those eligible.

The Kentucky case follows a series of major settlements that Wal-Mart has paid over the last year to resolve employment disputes. In February 2009, for instance, Wal-Mart paid $17.5 million to settle claims that it discriminated against black candidates when recruiting truck drivers.