July 1, 2011 What the Wal-Mart Decision Means For Employers

On Monday, June 20th, the Supreme Court reversed certification in the Wal-Mart class action claim. The decision means that the gender discrimination lawsuit - involving 1.5 million female employees - included too many women who had a range of experiences that were too broad. The Supreme Court decided that the women would be better served with multiple lawsuits involving smaller groups of women. Wal-Mart may be faced with smaller class actions based on specific geographic areas (stores / districts / regions), specific job titles, discrete periods of time, and so forth.

The decision has been taking the media by storm - and has left many employers wondering what the decision really means for them.

In this installment, we talk about the Supreme Court's decision and key arguments made by Wal-Mart and the plaintiffs that factored in to the decision. We discuss how these arguments affect your policies and procedures, and what you should be looking for when reviewing your data for equity.