Local Walmart Employees Unaware of Supreme Court Decision

It might have been the largest job discrimination lawsuit in American history, but on the afternoon that the U.S. Supreme Court threw it out of court, employees at local Walmarts said they never heard of it.

The class action suit against the nation’s biggest retailer claimed that Walmart discriminated against female employees by paying them less and failing to give them promotions.

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the rules for class action suits the plaintiffs used for their lawsuit filing does not allow claims of monetary discrimination.

In a narrow, 5-4 ruling along ideological lines, conservatives on the Supreme Court also won a second issue of whether the Walmart lawsuit satisfied a requirement as to what the plaintiffs have in common in order to establish their class action.

Ray Castillo, an employee at the who was collecting shopping carts in the parking lot, said he hadn’t heard anything about the class action suit, either on the news or from co-workers at the store.

Castillo explained that that might be because he spends most of his workday outside the store and has only worked there for a few weeks.

Another employee at the Walmart in Shelton, who declined to give his name, also said he hadn’t heard anything about a Supreme Court decision.

Castillo said his job isn’t easy. He has to work hard outside on hot days for low pay. But he felt Walmart treats him well. The store managers give him bottled water when the weather is hot, he said.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, issued a statement that she was "disappointed" by the ruling, which she called "yet another bad decision from the Supreme Court for women."

DeLauro said the ruling was a setback not only for "the employees who filed this lawsuit, and have been fighting for equal pay for over 10 years, but to the millions of women across the country facing workplace discrimination every day."

She said the lawsuit is about fairness. The world’s largest private employer pays more than a million women employees less than it pays their male counterparts, DeLauro said.

"I will be examining this decision closely, and will work to develop legislation that will protect the rights of class action lawsuits like this," DeLauro said. She also said she would continue to work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would guarantee equal pay for equal work.

Walmart issued a statement on its corporate website on the ruling, saying it "pulls the rug out from under the accusations made against Walmart over the last 10 years."

The retailer said every female employee and Walmart customer could not feel better about the company following the Supreme Court ruling.

The statement by Walmart Executive Vice President Gisel Ruiz said the company had a long history of providing advancement opportunities for women employees, and had created training and mentoring programs to help prepare women for promotions.

The case is known as Walmart Stores Inc. v. Dukes, et al. The U.S. Supreme Court has posted the entire decision on its official website.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the issue with the split decision. He noted that Walmart has policies forbidding discrimination and granting store managers discretion on hiring and promotions.

Because it did not have uniform policies, Scalia wrote, there is no "commonality" that is required for class action suits.

Four liberal justices dissented because the case might have been established under a different part of the class action rules.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote for the minority that evidence presented by the plaintiffs showed there was gender bias in the Walmart corporate culture.

For example, women filled 70 percent of the company’s hourly jobs, but only 33 percent of the management positions, Justice Ginsberg said.