advancement, blurted out, if you have an aggressive woman, promote her. outside a walmart executive echoed the company s argument, that the experiences of just a handful of women, even if true, are just not typical of what happened to more than a million other women who worked at walmart, and so cannot be the basis for this gigantic class-action against the company. what s wrong with this case is three plaintiffs are trying to represent more than 1.5 million associates. i ve had a very positive experience at walmart, like thousands of other women. reporter: betty dukes, one of the women trying to bring this case on behalf of so many others, was undaunted. if they rule against us, the fight has just begun. it s just begun. reporter: this court has generally been a pro-business court and so it will be a real uphill fight for the women who brought this case to win it, even with three women justices. terry moran, abc news, new york. just days after an air
killed 30 others. just after the school issued an alert. university officials say they will appeal. the retail giant wal-mart, the biggest of them all is now fighting what could become the biggest civil rights class action case of them all, ever. one that may end up costing the company billions of dollars. today, the supreme court heard arguments on whether the lawsuit should go forward. at issue, whether a group of women, who claim discrimination, can sue on behalf of every woman who worked at any wal-mart store anywhere over the past decade. shannon bream is live outside the supreme court building. shannon, the case started with just one woman. how big could this get? well, betty dukes is that won one woman. her years at wal-mart were getting paid less than the men and getting passed over for promotions simply because she was a woman. she says it s time on behalf of the rest of the women at wal-mart. some put that at 500,000 women. some put it three times that high.
correspondent shannon bream reports on that and some of the bigger questions surrounding this case. wal-mart may be a big company, that is no doubt. but they re not big enough where they can t be challenged d in a court of law. reporter: betty dukes says her years working for wal-mart were marked by sex discrimination as she was passed over for pay increases and promotion. a handful of other female employees joined her lawsuit and now want to extrapolate their claim to a class action that some estimate could grow to include 1.5 million. with critics point out would result in a much bigger payoff for trial lawyers involved, whether they settle the case or ultimately win it. today, the supreme court heard from both sides about whether it s legally appropriate to create what could be the largest employment law claus action in history. justice elena kagan said, all that the claimants have to demonstrate is that there is a practice, policy of subjectively that on the whole results in d
lawsuit against walmart that could make history. mary snowe has details. reporter: betty dukes has worked at walmart for 16 years. in 2001, she and five other co-workers sued walmart, accusing them of paying them less than men and offering them fewer opportunities. even after we had filed the class action, they hired a male worker and he started off at $9 an hour and i was still making just a little bit above 8. the reason he started off because he was able to negotiate a higher salary as a male. reporter: the plaintiffs are seeking back pay, saying women make up more than 70% of walmart s hourly workforce. walmart has said it does not discriminate and the company
and now asks the high court to stop the multibillion-dollar lawsuit before it ever goes to trial. shannon bream is following proceedings live in washington tonight. shannon, what are the specific allegations against wal-mart? well, shep it, starts with betty dukes who has worked as greert and cashier at wal-mart. she filed a lawsuit in 2001 alleging that wal-mart gives men better pay and opportunities simply because of their gender. that s not all. here is her attorney joe sellers. for instance the top human resource manager of the company who testified that having business meetings at hooters restaurants is an a perfectly appropriate place to invite men and women to have such meetings. there are now 60 female plaintiffs disclaiming of discrimination. class action lawsuit with maybe a million more female employees, shep. shepard: what s the response from wal-mart now. the company says plaintiff s claims simply are not true. from wal-mart general council we