It’s probably unlikely your company would ever face the prospect of more than a million employees suing you for discrimination. So why should you care about the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Wal-Mart class action bias case?
According to Gerald Maatman and Laura Maechtlen, writing on Seyfarth Shaw’s Workplace Class Action blog, the case is “apt to impact employment discrimination litigation for years to come.”
Here’s the background:
In a discrimination case against retail giant Wal-Mart, the high court struck down a bid to pursue a class-action lawsuit that would have involved as many as 1.5 million female workers.
The court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that employees’ attorneys could not prove workers’ claims, when considered individually, had enough in common to warrant class action status.
The court also ruled that another segment of the class action suit — one which concerned monetary claims — was improperly filed.
‘Bar’s been raised’
Here’s why the case matters to employers of all sizes: The ruling “focuses on the issue of whether plaintiffs had adequately demonstrated a common policy of discrimination on the part of Wal-Mart,” write Maatman and Maechtlen.
And the court set a pretty narrow standard for determining that “commonality.”
With so many individual complaints, “the Supreme Court concluded ‘it would be impossible to say that examination of all the class members’ claims for relief will produce a common answer’ …” said the lawyers.
Bottom line: It’s going to be harder to bring class-action lawsuits against employers in the future. Here’s what Maatman and Maechtlen had to say:
“The new roadmap is decidedly more favorable to employers than before.
“Employers should be upbeat in terms of the Supreme Court’s articulation of the required showings plaintiffs must make in the future to certify an employment discrimination class action.
“In short, the bar has been raised.”
The case is Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes et al. To read the full decision, go here.
