All Articles Tagged "sex discrimination"
Sex Discrimination Slippery Charge for Transgendered
(New York Times) — What is a man? For El’Jai Devoureau, this is not a rhetorical question. Mr. Devoureau, who was born physically female, is a man at the Motor Vehicle Commission, at theSocial Security office, at home, at job interviews. But what about at the urinal? In a case with a truly unusual set of factors, Mr. Devoureau filed a discrimination lawsuit on Friday that could break new ground in New Jersey and across the country, turning on the question of who is or is not a man. An employer fired Mr. Devoureau because it said only a man was allowed to do his job: watching men urinate into plastic cups at a drug treatment center. Mr. Devoureau, 39, says he has identified himself as a man all his life. In 2006, after he began taking male hormones and had sex-change surgery, he adopted the name El’Jai (pronounced like L. J.). A new birth certificate issued by the State of Georgia identifies him as male, as does his New Jersey driver’s license, and the Social Security Administrationmade the change in its records.
Supreme Court Hears Sex Discrimination Suit
(Wall Street Journal) — A class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. appeared unlikely to survive after Tuesday’s Supreme Court arguments, where justices suggested the suit was unfair both to the nation’s largest retailer and many of the women who allegedly were victimized. The lawsuit accused Wal-Mart of systematically paying as many as three million current and former female workers less than men and providing them fewer opportunities for promotion. Wal-Mart denies the claims, which could total billions of dollars in back pay and punitive damages, and says it has a strict antidiscrimination policy. The case potentially could set new standards for future employment class action. Much of corporate America, including Altria Group Inc., General Electric Co., Microsoft Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., has backed Wal-Mart, arguing that a plaintiff victory could open the door to unprecedented liability. But civil rights, women’s rights and labor rights groups have sided with the plaintiffs, contending that a sweeping class action is one of few effective tools against ingrained discrimination in the workplace. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the suit, filed in 2001, could proceed in its current form. It has yet to go to trial because Wal-Mart contends the alleged victims, who worked in 170 job classifications across 3,400 stores, have too little in common to qualify for a single class action suit.
Supreme Court Hears Sex Discrimination Suit
(Wall Street Journal) — A class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. appeared unlikely to survive after Tuesday’s Supreme Court arguments, where justices suggested the suit was unfair both to the nation’s largest retailer and many of the women who allegedly were victimized. The lawsuit accused Wal-Mart of systematically paying as many as three million current and former female workers less than men and providing them fewer opportunities for promotion. Wal-Mart denies the claims, which could total billions of dollars in back pay and punitive damages, and says it has a strict antidiscrimination policy. The case potentially could set new standards for future employment class action. Much of corporate America, including Altria Group Inc., General Electric Co., Microsoft Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., has backed Wal-Mart, arguing that a plaintiff victory could open the door to unprecedented liability. But civil rights, women’s rights and labor rights groups have sided with the plaintiffs, contending that a sweeping class action is one of few effective tools against ingrained discrimination in the workplace. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the suit, filed in 2001, could proceed in its current form. It has yet to go to trial because Wal-Mart contends the alleged victims, who worked in 170 job classifications across 3,400 stores, have too little in common to qualify for a single class action suit.
