Group One- Chapter 6- Question 15

Group One: Question 15; Nelson v. Wal-mart Stores, Inc.- Jenna Van Horn

Groups Agreement: Group One believes that there could  be a claim for disparate impact based on the fact that only 8.4%, or 672 drivers, out of the approximately 8,000 drivers Wal-Mart employs. The policy in question is that Wal-Mart recruits drivers  almost “exclusively by word of mouth”, in which current drivers hand out a “1-800” card to prospective applicants. On the surface, this policy seems neutral, but coupled with the fact that only about 15% of persons employed as “driver/sales workers or truck drivers” in the “ truck transportation” industry, means that there will be a much smaller margin of African Americans receiving offers of employment. Wal-Mart does have the defense in that it does stipulate that any screening committee in the final stages of assessing a potential employees must be at last 50% diverse,  but we as a group believe that the fact that there are no written or objective criteria potentially allows for subjective decisions to be made based on irrelevant details of a potential employee’s life. Therefore, we would hold that there is a disparate impact with Wal-Mart’s hiring process.

Actual Outcome: Wal-Mart moved to have the case dismissed on the ground that they asserted that the plaintiffs could not establish a prima facie case because that Plaintiffs' statistical analysis is flawed because Plaintiffs' experts relied on data outside the relevant time period. The defendant’s also believed the census data where the plaintiffs were getting the statistical data for the entire nation was flawed because it did not consider Wal-Mart’s minimum requirements for potential applicants. The court held that since the plaintiffs did in fact meet the requirements for prima facie, and since there seems to be material consideration in the, the defendants' motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs' class claims was denied. Wal-Mart then settled out of court for 17. 5 million dollars before the case could go back to trial. They also  agreed to provide priority placements for 23 black applicants who provide approved claim forms and to implement improvements to their transportation division’s recruitment, selection and personnel systems, as well as set benchmark hiring goals to ensure diversity.