SAN FRANCISCO — The female plaintiffs who previously sued Wal-Mart Stores for chain-wide gender discrimination in pay and promotions filed a reformulated lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court here here alleging the same charges on behalf of California-based women.
In June the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs' claim for a class-action lawsuit of up to 1.5 million current and former female employees, saying they did not have enough in common to be lumped together in a single lawsuit.
The new filing is more narrowly tailored to include a proposed class of plaintiffs representing more than 45,000 women in California, reports said. According to the suit, "Each plaintiff has worked in Wal-Mart's California regions and has been subjected to the discriminatory policy and practices alleged."
A Wal-Mart attorney was quoted in media reports as saying the arguments are based on the same theories that were repudiated by the Supreme Court.
"These lawyers seems more intent on alleging classes for their publicity value than their legal virtue," Theordore Boutrous Jr. told Reuters.
