PAF - Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology (KIET)

Submitted to Dr. Sajida Parveen

AMIR NISAR 64188

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Q#1- What financial impact do you think the lawsuit could potentially have on Wal- Mart? Do you
think the women deserve to win their lawsuit? What if the outcome of the case cost Wal-Mart so
much it had to lay off thousands of its workers and close stores?
Ans:

The case of Wal-Mart’s women will, of course, affect Wal-Mart financially. It may require Wal-Mart to pay
some amount of money for compensation payment to its female employees or at least to pay settlement
money to resolve the problem.

The women deserve to win the lawsuit so that it will give Wal-Mart a lesson to not discriminating women
and start to give them the same respect and opportunity as it gave the male employees. A good employee
is not seen based on the individual’s gender but rather based on his/her skill. The payment rate of
employees in the same rank, doing the same job and spending the same amount of work hour should be
the same in general. When the women win the lawsuit, it will also be like an announcement to other
companies or even the society in general that women deserve to be treated equally with men in the work
force.

Wal-Mart should have paid a compensation fee to the women employee but not at the cost of firing
workers and closing stores. If this happens, it is best for Wal-Mart to negotiate about the compensation
amount so that it will not affect Wal-Mart’s financial health. Firing workers and closing stores will create
new problems such as unemployment, losing source of revenue that will lead to capital flight, and also
requiring Wal-Mart to give the severance pay touts workers who are fired. Wal-Mart has to discuss the
payment with the plaintiff party regarding the compensation payment and apologize for its discriminating
behavior and promise to give equal treatment for all worker regardless of their gender.

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Q#2-What are the major moral complaints of the females suing Wal-Mart? Do you believe those
complaints are justified? Why? Wal-Mart has said that the case should not be heard as a class-action,
but that each woman should be considered individually and an individual determination should be
made regarding whether she specifically was discriminated against by Wal-Mart, because each
woman's situation is different. Do you agree?

Ans

The female employees feel that Wal-Mart is discriminating them, not

giving the same treatment between men and women. The women
are paid less although having the same job and even having better
performance and seniority, and have smaller chance to be given
promotion than the men workers.

The lawsuit issued by the female employees is justifiable as they were

discriminated by Wal-Mart which is not fair When women are given
the promotion, which is not as often as the promotion given to men,
the women need to have worked in Wal-Mart longer as the study
found that women needs 4.3 years to be promoted to assistant manager, while men only took 2.8 years
on average.

The workers should be treated equally by paying the same amount of payment for those who holds the
same position and has the same skill for the same amount of working time regardless of their gender or
race and so on. Female also has the right to be treated equally like men and when Wal-Mart violates its
female employees’ right, then it is unethical based on the rights moral view. Moreover, the justice
principle is also breached when Wal-Mart does not distribute the wage equally based on the contribution
of the worker or the skill or even the working hour.

Q#3-What factor do you think might account for the discrepancies the Drogin
report uncovered?
The factors that might account for the discrepancies that the Drogin report uncovered are the wrong
perception concerning higher levels among male as well as female workers. The perception that the work
of women was to raise children caused the management position to allocate more male workers the
positions that the qualified female could have been handed. Another factor that could have led to the
discrepancies is based on subjective analysis of performance. Based on this factor, the report more
women left jobs to look after children resulted in higher turnover rates as well as men superiority. The
report pointed out that female workers were not suitable to land better job positions because the majority
of the job people in the places

Running head:

SEX DISCRIMINATION AT WALMART should be ready to face stiff challenges like relocation among others
and the belief was communicated to the women. The last factor that I feel might account for the
discrepancies the report uncovered is about wage and promotion. The report according to Drogin stated

PAF – KIET Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology City Campus Karachi
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that women had higher ratings than men. The women hired at the same job as men were paid lower
salaries as compared to the men. For instance, Drogin found that majority of female workers hired in
1996 were paid $0.35 less each single hour than the men and by 2001, the gap between these two
workers had increased to $1.16 each single hour.

Q-4 What if anything, do you think, Wal-Mart should do to correct these discrepancies? Should the
company institute an “affirmative action” promotion program for female employees? If so, what
should this program be like?

Ans:

If discrimination is happening within the company .in order for Wall-Mart to correct these discrepancies,
they should make opportunity for woman employees to advance in the organization.

These should not be a pay difference between males and females, and it shouldn’t take woman longer to
get promoted then men employees

I don’t think that the company should institute an affirmative action promotion program for female
employees. Manager just need to promote fairy based on Potential and knowledge.

PAF – KIET Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology City Campus Karachi