Retail workers are suing Sterling Jewelers, the nation's largest specialty retail jeweler. A federal arbitrator is investigating if Sterling paid female employees $2-3 per hour less than males and if women were offered fewer promotions than their male counterparts. The arbitrator will determine if the case can have class-action status, which means it would be broadened to include current and former workers corporatewide.
Alison Grant reports in the Cleveland Ohio Business News: "If she decides to certify the complaint as a class action, it would become possibly the largest sex discrimination case ever arbitrated in the United States, affecting as many as 20,000 women, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said."