Legal Blog: Racial Discrimination in Georgian Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

Another Wal-Mart employee recently filed a racial discrimination and retaliation complaint against Wal-Mart in the Northern District of Georgia…

Raquel Sagastume lives in Riverdale, Georgia. Originally, Ms. Sagastume hails from Honduras. She was hired at Wal-Mart as a Sales Associate in March of 2001.  After her successful job performance, Ms. Sagastume was promoted to Assistant Store Manager and made approximately $46,000.00 a year.

In 2006, Ms. Sagastume was transferred to a store located in Lovejoy, Georgia. Upon arriving at the new location and without her approval, Ms. Sagastume’s salary was immediately reduced to $38,000.00 a year. No indication was ever given to Ms. Sagastume that her performance on the job was anything less than stellar. 

Additionally, Ms. Sagastume was assigned demeaning tasks, subjected to a hostile work environment, and made fun of for her Honduran accent. Ms. Sagastume admitted being told as a manager ‘not to hire Hispanic employees’ and has been passed up for promotions on several occasions for less qualified, non-Hispanic employees. After protesting her treatment, and continually being denied transfers to other stores, Ms. Sagastume brought suit against Wal-Mart for intentional race discrimination and retaliation.

Read the full complaint here.

Posted by Christina Clark on Friday, August 15, 2008