The United States Supreme Court has agreed to review a major class-action gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart which may involve anywhere from 500,000 to 1.5 million women.
The case at issue originally involved six female Wal-Mart employees who brought gender discrimination claims regarding unequal compensation and failure to promote as compared to male employees. The case then began to grow into a major class action law suit which could potentially include 1 million current and former female Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees.
The Supreme Court will not review the facts of the case and determine any liability, rather, its inquiry will be limited to whether such a large number of potential claims can be joined together in a single litigation.
The decision of the Court, which will likely be handed down in the Spring of 2011, is one that is eagerly anticipated by those with interests on both the employee and employer sides of employment litigation due to its potentially significant impact.