1. Legal Compliance 3 MANA 4328 Dr. Jeanne Michalski Michalski@uta.edu

2.  Wal-Mart, employs 1.3 million workers at roughly 3,522 Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs.  Certified as a class: 1.6 million women who worked for Wal-Mart's U.S. stores at any time since Dec. 26, 1998.  Women comprise over 72% of Wal-Mart's sales workforce and less than 33% of its managers. “Wal-Mart's Women Troubles”

3. The Plaintiff’s Case Title %Women %Men Store manager14.3%85.7% Co-manager22.80%77.2% Asst. manager35.7%64.3% Mgt. trainee41.3%58.7% Cashier92.5%7.5% Source: Drogin Kakigi & Assoc

4. Wal-Mart’s Defense  Wal-Mart says it classifies management positions differently from its competitors. For example, it says department "managers" are not included in the count of managers because they are not salaried positions.  "If we included these, our overall percentage would probably be close to 50%," the company says.  Wal-Mart men average higher seniority and are more willing to relocate.

5. Current Status Wal-Mart Wins Request in Bias Case; Company Challenged Class-Action Status Bloomberg News Feb 19, 2009 Wal-Mart Stores won its request for a review of a court ruling that allowed as many as 2 million current and former female workers to proceed with the biggest sex-discrimination case in the nation's history. A federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday granted Wal-Mart's request to rehear the case. In December 2007, a three-judge panel upheld a lower-court ruling granting class-action, or group, status to the women. Wal-Mart sought a rehearing before a larger panel of judges. "We look forward to presenting our arguments to a larger group of judges and are hopeful they will decide the case should not proceed as a class action," Jeff Gearhart, Wal-Mart's general counsel, said in an e-mailed statement. "We don't have any reason to believe that the outcome will be any different," said Joseph Sellers, a lawyer representing the women. "We continue to be very confident in our position.“

6. Exercise  Is this unlawful discrimination?