Walmart Being Sued

Lawyers representing three Tennessee women filed a class-action lawsuit against Walmart Tuesday claiming the retail giant gives unequal treatment to female employees. Evidence in the case shows that women who hold salaried and hourly positions in Walmart stores in the region that includes Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi, have been paid far less than men in comparable positions, although on average, the women have more seniority and higher performance ratings than men. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, is the third regional discrimination case lodged against Walmart since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling on a national class action against the retailer in June of 2011. According to WKRN-TV, in McMinnville, a female Walmart employee was told that the promotion she had been given had been rescinded and given to a male coworker because “a man can do a better job than a woman” and in Cookeville, a store manager informed a woman transferring to his store that she would have to take a pay cut because women do not make “that kind of money” at the store. The class includes women who worked at Walmart stores and were subject to pay and promotion discrimination at any time since December 26, 1998. In a letter to WKRN Walmart says, “The class the plaintiffs now allege is no more appropriate than the nationwide class the Supreme Court has already rejected. Walmart has strong policies against discrimination. As we have said all along, these claims are unsuitable for class treatment because the situations of each individual are so different, and because the claims of these three plaintiffs are not representative of the hundreds of thousands of women who work at Walmart.”