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Woman Wins Discrimination Suit Against Wal-Mart
Woman Said She Was Fired After Asking For Same Pay As Male Co-Worker
POSTED: 4:19 pm EDT June 21,
2007
UPDATED: 10:15 am EDT June 22,
2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A female pharmacist from Pittsfield won one of the largest discrimination lawsuits in Massachusetts history against retail giant Wal-Mart.NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that Cindy Haddad said she was treated unfairly because of her gender, and a jury agreed.Haddad said she worked as a Wal-Mart pharmacist for 11 years, but when she complained to the company that she felt she was being paid less than her male counterparts, she was fired.
Haddad said in her mind, there was only one reason why she was treated as she was."Because I was a female. I was the nagging wife at the store complaining," she said.After a two-week trial in Berkshire Superior Court, a jury awarded the 45-year-old Pittsfield woman $2 million.In a statement to NewsCenter 5, Wal-Mart claimed Haddad's firing had absolutely nothing to do with her gender.In court, lawyers for Wal-Mart claimed Haddad was fired for leaving her post at the pharmacy and allowing a technician to fill a prescription in her absence. The company said it stands by its decision to terminate her for that violation.Haddad said the incident happened two years before she was fired. According to her lawyer, it was just more of the same in the pattern of unequal treatment."Every other pharmacist did the same thing that pharmacist Cindy Haddad did, and yet she was fired for violating a policy that they did not enforce against male pharmacists," attorney Richard Fradette said.Haddad's co-counsel said the jury in reaching its decision clearly felt Wal-Mart was wrong."What the jury said was that sort of treatment is not acceptable in our modern society," attorney David Belfort said.John Simley, the spokesman for Wal-Mart, said an appeal in the Haddad discrimination case is likely.
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