By Bryan Stillwagon The Supreme Court ruled today that Plaintiffs’ use of average donning and doffing times was proper and sufficient to affirm a $5.8 million judgment against Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, No. 14-1146 (Mar. 22, 2016). Plaintiffs (employees in a pork processing plant in Iowa) relied at trial on an industrial relations expert’s […]
Category: Dukes Case
Another Mini-Dukes Action Revived
By Andy Volin Current and former women employees of Wal-Mart recently won big in the Sixth Circuit in their mini-Dukes discrimination class action. The trial court had ruled that the class action was filed too late, but the court of appeal revived the claim. Phipps v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. 13-6194 (6th Cir. July 7, […]
Texas Mini-Dukes Case Revived
By Andy Volin Former women employees asserting a mini-Dukes class action discrimination claims against Wal-Mart in Texas recently had a big win in the Fifth Circuit. That court overturned a ruling that had dismissed their class action as filed too late. This recent decision is just the latest in 14 years of litigation that multiple […]
Wal-Mart Plaintiffs Seek to Change the Rules
By Andy Volin After the Supreme Court rejected a nationwide class action by female Wal-Mart workers in the 2011 Dukes case, the plaintiffs filed smaller class actions in different parts of the country. Wal-Mart has persuaded several of the trial courts that these “second chance” class actions were filed too late. The courts have relied […]
Avoiding Dukes
By Andy Volin Female employees at national employers claim systemic pay discrimination in a variety of settings. The most famous example is the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes. There, the Supreme Court ruled that a nationwide class action for female workers was improper because individual stores had discretion to set […]
Wal-Mart Defeats Another Mini-Dukes Class Action
By Andy Volin A federal court in Florida has dismissed class action gender discrimination claims against Wal-Mart, ruling that the class action allegations are barred by the statute of limitations. After the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes that a nationwide class action could not be maintained because there was no […]
Dukes v. Wal-Mart: Second Verse Same as the First
By Bill Wright A federal District Court has rejected the Plaintiffs’ “retooled class definition” in the proposed sex discrimination class action against Wal-Mart. Dukes, et al., v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. CV 01-02252 CRB (N.D. CA Aug. 2, 2013). In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the Plaintiffs’ old proposed definition (which included a nation-wide […]
Wal-Mart Wins Again in a Regional Class Action
By Andy Volin After the Supreme Court rejected a nation-wide class action in 2011, female workers have sued Wal-Mart in a number of smaller class actions around the country. Wal-Mart has successfully argued that several of these new cases are untimely. In a new decision, a federal court dismissed the regional action filed in Wisconsin […]
Fifth Mini-Dukes Class Action Brought Against Wal-Mart
By Andy Volin A fifth regional class action gender discrimination case has been filed against Wal-Mart. This latest case, brought in Wisconsin, claims Wal-Mart discriminates against women in pay and promotions at the store level in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It joins regional cases already pending in California, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. Wal-Mart has […]
Second Mini-Dukes Class Action Is Untimely
By Andy Volin Although the Supreme Court rejected a nationwide sex discrimination class action in 2011, the female employees (and their lawyers) did not end their long war with against Wal-Mart. The plaintiffs narrowed the geographic scope of the original case to California and filed three new regional class actions around the country. Wal-Mart has […]