Wal-Mart Gender-Bias Suit Heads To Supreme Court

The Supreme Court agrees to hear Wal-Mart's case involving employee discrimination.
By Jeanine Poggi ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) --

Wal-Mart

(WMT) - Get Report

is heading to the Supreme Court regarding its class-action lawsuit involving employee discrimination.

The Supreme Court will now decide if the discount giant must face a gender-suit on behalf of 1 million of its workers. The justices will review claims made by women that have worked at Wal-Mart and its Sam's Club stores since 2001, who say they were paid less and given fewer promotions than their male peers. These women as seeking back pay and punitive damages.

The Supreme Court will only decide if it should handle the original lawsuit as a class action or let it trickle down to individual cases in lower courts.

The suit would be the biggest U.S. employment class action and could cost Wal-Mart billions in liabilities.

-- Written by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

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