Walmart’s $20 Million Sex Bias Pact With EEOC Approved by Judge

A federal judge approved Walmart Inc.'s agreement to pay the EEOC $20 million and end the company’s use of physical abilities testing for grocery order fillers at all U.S. distribution centers in order to settle the agency’s suit alleging the testing illegally screens out female applicants based on sex.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky signed an order Wednesday granting the parties’ joint motion for entry of their proposed consent decree. Walmart and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sought Judge Karen K. Caldwell’s blessing of the pact Aug. 3.

The $20 million will be distributed to Alice Collett, Angela Lambert, and a class of other female grocery order filler applicants nationwide, in individual amounts to be designated by the agency.

All women who sought order filler jobs at a Walmart distribution center in the U.S. between Feb. 1, 2010, and the time the retailer stops using the testing are eligible to share in the settlement, if their application stalled because they didn’t achieve a “competitive” score on the PAT, according to the decree.

The EEOC’s suit alleged that applicants were required to score 792.8 or higher on the PAT to advance in the hiring process. They also couldn’t reapply to be grocery order fillers for six months if the scored lower than 792.8, the EEOC said.

Walmart didn’t admit to liability by agreeing to the pact and continues to deny its physical abilities testing or hiring of order fillers violated the sex discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The decree also bars Walmart from administering or implementing any PAT when hiring grocery distribution center order fillers for five years and requires the company to maintain a centralized electronic or written record of all sex discrimination complaints received by its global ethics unit over the same period regarding hiring for the position.

EEOC attorneys in Louisville and Indianapolis represented the commission. Dinsmore & Shohl LLP represented Walmart.

The case is EEOC v. Walmart Inc., E.D. Ky., No. 6:20-cv-00163, order granting entry of consent 9/9/20.