Nearly 100 Florida women have filed a lawsuit against retail titan Walmart alleging decades of gender discrimination, Vox reported Friday. The suit claims that the company discriminated against female employees by favoring men for raises and promotions, with claims dating back as early as the 1990s.
The lawsuit stems from an earlier gender discrimination class-action, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes, which made it to the Supreme Court. The case was dismissed in 2011 for being too broad, but many of the suit’s initial Equal Opportunity Commission complaints were still pending—and last November, the plaintiffs were granted the right to sue. “I want Walmart to admit that they were not promoting women at one point in time, and I want the women there now to know they should be getting their fair share,” one of the plaintiffs said. “Women should be able to advance based on their work history and knowledge, on the same terms as the men.”
A spokesperson for Walmart told Vox that the company has a “strong policy against discrimination” and that “The allegations from these plaintiffs are not representative of the positive experiences that millions of women have had working at Walmart.”