EEOC charge filed against Wal-Mart

With the mantra that the “Wal-Mart Case Is Not Over,” more than 500 women who were part of a failed class-action claim against the Bentonville-based retailer have filed discrimination claims with the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a June 20 ruling that rejected what would have been the largest U.S. class-action discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart.

The gender discrimination claim alleged that Wal-Mart failed to promote and pay women as equally as men. Initial estimates had the per claim payout ranging between $500,000 and $1 million, meaning a possible monetary claim could have reached the hundreds of billions. Initially known as the “Dukes” case, the class-action claim once included more than 1.5 million current and former female employees.

Friday (Jan. 27) was the deadline for women in five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina — to pursue their claims, according to plaintiffs' attorneys Joseph Sellers, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, and Brad Seligman, with the Impact Fund, who represent the women.

Most of the EEOC charges, estimated at 430, were filed in the five states since the June 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing a lower court ruling certifying class action against Wal-Mart. Women in all other states who previously filed class action claims against Wal-Mart, and its subsidiary Sam's Club, have until May 25, 2012, to file a claim with the EEOC, noted a joint statement from the law firm and the Impact Fund.

"The Supreme Court did not give Wal-Mart a free pass to discriminate. Filing an EEOC claim is one more way current and former women employees of Wal-Mart can assert their rights," Sellers and Seligman said in the statement.

The statement noted that more than 12,000 women have contacted attorneys directly or through the Wal-Mart Class website.

"These EEOC charges are just the down-payment — we expect to file thousands of additional charges by the May 25, 2012 deadline. We urge women throughout the country who feel they have been discriminated against by Wal-Mart in pay and promotions to log onto the www.walmartclass.com site and register," said Seligman.

Wal-Mart believes the Supreme Court’s ruling says much about the merits of the case.

“We continue to believe that anyone with a legitimate claim should have their day in court,” Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter said. “It’s important to remember that these claims have never been heard on their merits, and as the Supreme Court noted in ruling in Wal-Mart’s favor last summer, the company has strict policies against discrimination and the plaintiff’s were worlds away from showing otherwise.”