Wal-Mart says class action “too big”

Molly Selvin of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Wal-Mart wants to tell the judges that the gender bias case against it is simply “too big.”

The world’s biggest retailer hopes to derail history’s biggest private civil-rights case next week by arguing before a federal appellate panel that the massive gender-discrimination lawsuit against it is too big.

The lawsuit accuses Wal-Mart of systematically favoring men over women in pay and promotion. An appeals-court ruling that backs expanding the case into a class action affecting as many as 1.5 million women would not only put billions of dollars at stake, but also would set up a battle that both sides say would mean a lot for other employers and employees.

“It’s a nightmare for business,” said Robin Conrad, legal director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In a brief filed to support Wal-Mart’s appeal of the class certification, the chamber argued that allowing cases that large would create an avalanche of lawsuits against businesses so hard to defend against that many companies would be encouraged to settle regardless of the facts.

Advocates for workers, however, say the case must remain a class action because the courts are often the only place where low-wage, non-union employees can stand up to corporate giants.