Wal-Mart discrimination comes before US Supreme Court

Mar 29, 2011, 2:18 GMT

Washington - Discount retail giant Wal-Mart faces the highest US court Tuesday over a long-running discrimination case that has far-reaching ramifications for US businesses and civil rights advocates.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case brought by female workers who argue Wal-Mart routinely favours male counterparts for promotions and better pay. The question before the court is whether the large group can collectively sue Wal-Mart for damages - a class- action lawsuit - or whether they must sue individually.

A victory for the female workers could lead to more than 1 million women joining the lawsuit against Wal-Mart, and could prompt similar class-action lawsuits by other groups of women and minorities who believe they have been discriminated against by their employers.

Those potential consequences have led business associations and civil-rights groups to line up on opposite sides of the case, filing briefs outlining their positions in support or opposition with the Supreme Court's nine justices.

Wal-Mart acknowledges there have been individual cases of discrimination, but insists there is no pattern across the company. They argue the women's complaints are too different to be combined in one lawsuit that could be worth billions of dollars in damages.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments from lawyers on Tuesday, but is not likely to rule on the case until later this year. A ruling would only address whether the lawsuit can continue as a class action, but not the underlying questions of workplace discrimination, which are yet to be argued in a trial court.

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