Walmart

Paul in Cannon Beach

Walmart is making history again. Not the good kind. The largest class action suit ever is going forward.

[URL]http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63P42920100427[/URL]

Holly Jones

I was just sharing a link on this one from CNN a few minutes ago. ([url]http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/26/walmart.suit/index.html[/url])

It was just 2008 that Wal-Mart had the largest wage and hour settlement in history, and now this. More than a million claimants....

And here we were just discussing the other day that it seems you could have an entire training event on nothing but Wal-Mart's foibles.

Sharon McKnight SPHR

Can't help but wonder if, at some point, we'll see TV commercials for other retailers that go something like ...

We could offer our merchandise at lower prices but we choose to obey the law and pay our employees appropriately, etc.

Sharon

NaeNae55

I don't think you will really see those kinds of commercials, Sharon. My sister started boycotting Walmart shortly after the woman mentioned filed her lawsuit. There were all kinds of stories going around about the company, and lots of people talked about how bad they were. I think my sister was the only one who actually stopped shopping there though. The prices tend to lure people back, regardless of how the ways they find to keep them low.

Aacevedo

It is a shame that we still see this stuff happening in 2010. I love Wal Mart, I'm not gonna lie. But gee, this kind of screams "unethical". NaeNae is right...the prices will always lure people back in. Hopefully this lawsuit will wake them up and change their discriminatory practices.

Sharon McKnight SPHR

You'd think it would be less expensive for them to just adhere to the law than to pay all the extra legal fees, not to mention the fines and back pay.

NaeNae55

It's probably one of those things where they give you two sets of rules which contradict each other. When I was young I worked at a Jack in the Box. I was told I had 2 minutes to get the cars through the drive thru and could not have food waiting to be ordered. The sandwhiches took between 3 and 4-1/2 minutes to cook. The two minute rule and the no cooking ahead rule contradicted each other.

I bet the management of Walmart has a similar situation. Follow the laws, and promote only those we deem trustworthy (men). Two rules that contradict each other.

bethk

Oh-h-h, you'd better duck, Nae. I think I'll move out of the way.

Dasher

...dissenting was Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, a leading conservative whose view could carry weight if Wal-Mart appeals. He wrote that the plaintiffs who make up the approved class "have little in common but their sex and this lawsuit."

Well, yes -- isn't that what makes them able to file a class action lawsuit!

Paul in Cannon Beach

Hmm.... good point Dasher. Does the judge want them to be Facebook friends too? Or part of the same bridge club?

You would think that its inherent to the case that they have nothing in common except their gender. That's why the discrimination claim is based on.... wait for it... gender!