Supreme Court Backs Wal-Mart in Pay Discrimination Case
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that as many as 1.6 million women who are current or former Wal-Mart employees cannot sue Wal-Mart for pay discrimination in a class-action suit. A lower court had ruled that the women could join together in a class action.
But the court did not rule on the women’s claims of systematic and company-wide pay and promotion discrimination.
Ten years ago, a group of women who worked at Wal-Mart stores, led by Betty Dukes, filed a lawsuit alleging the corporation engaged in company-wide gender discrimination by paying women less than men, promoting fewer women to management positions and promoting male employees more quickly.
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) President Joe Hansen called the decision “deeply disturbing.” The UFCW has been a longtime supporter of Wal-Mart workers’ fight for justice.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says working people are disappointed by today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Wal-Mart.
Our courts should be available to working men and women who seek to challenge discriminatory promotion and pay practices by their employers. Today’s decision continues a disturbing trend of closing the courthouse doors to workers seeking redress against corporations.
The ruling means the already uphill battle for women to fight pay discrimination will get even worse. John Nichols at The Nation writes that the ruling is “a big win for Wal-Mart, and for other large firms that may not choose to treat employees fairly.” The court ruled on the grounds that
the class-action status that could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers was too large.
Tell Senate It’s Time to Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act—Now!
Time is running out for the Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182) to help close the wage gap between women and men. The Senate is back to work but could be gone for the fall elections in three weeks.
Call your senators today toll free at 1-877-667-6650 and urge them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act before the end of September. Even if your senators are co-sponsors, they need to hear from you today, so the bill can be put on the Senate’s to-do list before adjournment.
The bill would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and barring retaliation against workers who disclose their wages to co-workers.
Bill Introduced to Redress High Court Ruling Penalizing Older Workers
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court took aim at older workers and age discrimination cases with a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas that forces older workers to jump a higher than previous legal hurdle to prove age discrimination.
Today, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act was introduced in Congress to restore vital civil rights protections for older workers in the face of the high court’s decision, Gross v. FBL Financial. That case, say lawmakers, rewrote civil rights laws and overturned well-established precedent, making it harder for workers facing age discrimination to enforce their rights.
The bill was introduced by the chairmen of three key congressional committees: Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), House Education and Labor Committee; Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee; and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senate Judiciary Committee.
House Passes Two Major Working Family Bills: Fair Pay Act, Paycheck Fairness Act
Lilly Ledbetter says she knows she’ll never recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars she lost from her paychecks because of nearly 20 years of pay discrimination. But today the U.S. House of Representatives, with a big push by Ledbetter’s refusal to go quietly away, took the first step to make sure millions of other women don’t suffer the same fate.
By a vote of 247-171, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act (H.R. 11) overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—justice. Then shortly after, lawmakers added some new teeth to equal pay laws and passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) by a 256-163 vote. Both bills now go to the U.S. Senate.
Obama, Congress Put Working Families at Heart of Economic Plan
President-elect Barack Obama and Congress aren’t wasting any time setting the tone that the nation’s working families are at the center of their efforts to revitalize the economy and rebuild the middle class.
Obama is meeting today and throughout the week with congressional leaders to shape an economic recovery package that focuses on job creation, tax relief for middle-class families, help for the unemployed and aid for states caught in the grip of a tightening fiscal crisis.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will vote on two bills to ensure equal pay for women and reverse the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely restricted the rights of women to combat pay discrimination through the courts.
In his weekly radio address, Obama said the economic package—The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan—aims to
not only create jobs in the short-term, but spur economic growth and competitiveness in the long term….We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan—which is to create 3 million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.
Fair Pay Hearing Shows Why Pay Discrimination Isn’t OK
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When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in 2007 that Lilly Ledbetter waited too long to file a lawsuit after experiencing 20 years of pay discrimination by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Ledbetter says it sent a “loud and clear” message to Big Business.
With regard to pay discrimination, there are lots of other companies out there that got the Supreme Court’s message loud and clear: They will not be punished for discriminating, if they do it long enough and cover it up well enough.
She testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday at a hearing examining pay discrimination and barriers to equal pay for equal work. Last year, after the court’s decision, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that, in effect, would reverse the ruling. But Senate Republicans, with the support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have blocked Senate action.
