LITTLE ROCK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. faces a new sex-discrimination lawsuit that seeks class-action status and has the potential to include some female employees in Arkansas.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the middle district of Tennessee, Nashville division, covers a region mostly in that state but includes a portion of northeast Arkansas.
It is the third regional lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2011 reversed alower court ruling certifying a national class-action case with essentially the same allegations. That case contended that Wal-Mart systematically discriminated against female employees in hiring, promotion and pay decisions.
Class-action cases have multiple rules to be met before certification is granted, and cases involving monetary damages require that plaintiffs meet stricter standards. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed the plaintiffs did not meet those standardsbut split 5-4 on a requirement for commonality.
The new case that touches Arkansas involves Wal-Mart’s Region 43.
The plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Sellers said the Tennessee case is similar to cases in California and Texas but focuses on practices in Tennessee.
“That’s the way the Supreme Court directed us to focus,” he said.
The Wal-Mart region also includes parts of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Bentonville-based Wal-Mart, said the proposed new class of plaintiffs “is no more appropriate than the class the Supreme Court has already rejected.”
“Wal-Mart has strong policies against discrimination. As we have said all along, these claims are unsuitable for class treatment because the situations of each individual are so different, and because the claims of these three plaintiffs are not representative of the hundreds of thousandsof women who work at Wal-Mart,” he said.
The lead plaintiff’s attorneys in the case are from Tennessee. Sellers is serving as co-counsel.
Named plaintiffs are former Wal-Mart employees Cheryl Phipps and Bobbi Milner and current employee Shawn Gibbons. All three are identified as Tennessee residents.
David Garrison, Tennesseebased plaintiffs’ counsel in the case, said the focus of the current case is on pay discrimination at the regional level. After working about nine months on the case, he said, the firmcame up with 70 charges of discrimination. Only the three lead plaintiffs are identified in the lawsuit.
“We think this case is particularly strong,” Garrison said.
The plaintiffs are seeking back pay and “special damages for lost compensation and job benefits that they would have received but for the discriminatory practices of Wal-Mart.” They also seek punitive damages “in an amount commensurate with Wal-Mart’s ability pay” and an injunction to prohibit unlawful practices.
Wal-Mart’s stock closed Tuesday at $73.75 per share, down 30 cents or 0.4 percent. The stock has traded between $51.63 and $75.24 in the past year.
Business, Pages 27 on 10/03/2012