In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a class-action suit brought against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by 1.5 million current and former female employees of the retail giant in June of this year. But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California said in a ruling on August 19th that the women now have until October 28th to file individual suites. The women claimed that Wal-Mart denied them promotions and pay raises because of their gender.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the women must take up their claims with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission before they will be able to file a federal lawsuit.
Potential clients that never filed a complaint with the EEOC have until January 27th, 2012 to do so in states that have a 180 day limit and May 25th in those states with a 300 day limit.
Wal-Mart’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr. said “This is a fair approach that is similar to what we proposed.” The case is Betty Dukes et al v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., U.S. District Court for the Northern District.
