EEOC and Walmart Settle: $11.7 Million
Earlier this month, the EEOC announced that Walmart Stores will pay $11.7 million in back wages and compensatory damages, up to $250,000 in administration fees and will furnish other relief, including jobs, to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Walmart’s London, Ky., Distribution Center denied jobs to female applicants from 1998 through February 2005. During that time period, the EEOC contends, Walmart regularly hired male entry-level applicants for warehouse positions, but excluded female applicants who were equally or better qualified. The EEOC alleged that Walmart regularly used gender stereotypes in filling entry-level order filler positions.
The consent decree settling the suit, entered by the court on March 1, 2010, requires Walmart to provide order filler jobs, as they become available, to eligible and interested female class members, as determined by a claims administrator. Walmart will fill the first 50 available order filler positions with female class members. For the next 50 positions, female class members will be offered every other job. Thereafter, every third position will be offered to female class members.
A settlement administrator will distribute the proceeds to eligible class members. Walmart has agreed to pay the first $250,000 of the administration costs.