Tennessee women file sex discrimination lawsuit against Walmart

Three Tennessee women and long-time employees of Walmart have filed a class action lawsuit against the discount retailer, claiming they were denied promotions because of their gender and paid less than their male counterparts.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nashville on Tuesday, targets employment practices in Tennessee as well as parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi.

The complaint “seeks to end Walmart’s discriminatory practices regarding the pay and promotion of female employees,” said Nashville-based attorneys Barrett Johnston.

It also seeks unspecified punitive damages.

The three plaintiffs, Cheryl Phipps, Bobbi Millner and Shawn Gibbons have spent between 11 and 26 years working for stores in three different towns in Tennessee.

They detail years of bias and unequal pay.

Millner says in the complaint that she was accidentally handed a paycheck of a fellow assistant manager, and “discovered he was earning thousands of dollars more per year that she was despite having considerably less experience,” the lawsuit claims.

Other female workers, including a Navy veteran, were told they could not be promoted to management because it was a “man’s job,” attorneys said. A manager at a Franklin, Tenn., store told a female worker that “women should be seen and not heard,” the lawsuit alleges.

A Walmart spokesman told the Daily News it has “strong policies against discrimination.”

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