On April 26, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that hundreds of thousands of female Wal-Mart employees who worked at Wal-Mart stores at any time since June 2001 now may proceed with their class-action lawsuit charging sex discrimination in pay and promotions.

The ruling in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CV-01-02252-MJJ, certifies the female employees’ class action and makes the case the largest civil rights class-action case ever.  

Pryor Cashman Managing Partner Ronald Shechtman, who is also Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Group, was interviewed by SHRM Online for its April 26, 2010 article, “9th Circuit Upholds Certification Against Wal-Mart – Decentralized management at issue.” Shechtman commented that the risk for employers has grown. He explained that for a class action to advance, policies must be broad-based and “from centralized HR or practices” rather than from a single unit or store.

Shechtman said the ruling is a “game changer,” adding that now when HR professionals face “a series of possibly related claims,” whether based on gender or on other unlawful reasons such as race, “the risk for a class action has grown."

To read the article, please click here.