Regions

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco rejected a motion to certify the sex discrimination claims filed by the women workers of Wal-Mart as a class action. The plaintiffs represented 150,000 women working in the retailer's California offices. They filed the case against Wal-Mart, alleging that they were denied promotions and pay increases because of their gender.

It can be recalled that in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a much comprehensive class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the world's largest retailer. That claim alleged that the women working in the 3,400 Wal-Mart stores around the U.S. were underpaid and not promoted as quickly compared to their male counterparts.

The recent ruling brought another blow in the attempt by the store's female employees to seek damages over what they alleged as Wal-Mart's discriminatory employment practices. Judge Breyer ruled that their allegations could not be classified as a class action since they were not able to establish that that the company's employment practices were, as they claim to be a class-wide policy.