Employment Bill Will Make it Easier for Employees to Challenge Companywide Discrimination

(Washington, D.C.) Today the Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012, which will make it easier for employees to come together as a group to challenge companywide discrimination, will be introduced in the House and the Senate.  Exactly one year ago today, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Betty Dukes, et al, preventing tens of thousands of women employees at Wal-Mart from coming together as a class to challenge the pattern of sex discrimination in pay and promotions they described in Wal-Mart stores across the country.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act will restore the rights that decision stripped from employees across the country.

The following is a statement by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center:

“Employment discrimination is alive and well in the workplace.  But last year’s Supreme Court ruling in the Wal-Mart case made it much harder for employees to band together to challenge companywide discrimination.  The decision shut the courthouse door on the millions of women workers who will not be able to vindicate their rights one person at a time. An individual woman facing pay discrimination often cannot afford to put her job on the line by filing a case or pay a lawyer to represent her.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012 helps repair the damage of the Court’s decision by making it easier for employees to come together as a group to challenge workplace discrimination.  Especially in this fragile economy when employees are trying to hang onto their jobs, individual workers who are paid low wages like the women of Wal-Mart are vulnerable to the threat of employer retaliation if they were to file a case on their own against their employer.

“But when ordinary workers join forces, they can confront discrimination by powerful corporate interests and ensure that no employer is too big to be held accountable under the law.  Congress should pass this important legislation and reopen the courthouse door so that women employees across the country will once again have a real chance to correct pay and other forms of discrimination in the workplace.”  

###

For more NWLC analysis of what the Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012 means for women workers:

• EEORA Factsheets (http://www.nwlc.org/resource/equal-employment-opportunity-restoration-ac...)
• 32 Cents Short:  Wal-Mart v. Dukes and the Extreme Wage Gap in Sales and Related Occupations (http://www.nwlc.org/resource/32-cents-short-wal-mart-v-dukes-and-extreme...)
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012: What it Means for Low-Wage Women Workers (http://www.nwlc.org/resource/equal-employment-opportunity-restoration-act-2012-what-it-means-low-wage-women-workers)
• Walmart v. Dukes: New Hurdles and a Significant Step Back for Women Employees (http://www.nwlc.org/resource/walmart-v-dukes-new-hurdles-and-significant...)

The National Women's Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance and protect women's equality and opportunity.  The Center focuses on major policy areas of importance to women and their families including economic security, education, employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income women.  For more information on the Center, visit:  www.nwlc.org.