A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit that claims Wal-Mart's denial of health insurance coverage for birth control is unfair to female employees. U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes said Friday that all women working for the nation's largest retailer after March 2001 could pursue claims against the company if they were using prescription contraceptives.  Lisa Smith Mauldin, a customer-service manager at a Wal-Mart store in Hiram, filed the lawsuit in October asking the court to declare the company's health plan illegal and to order Wal-Mart to reimburse her and other employees for uninsured prescription contraceptives.
Her lawyer, George Stein, called the judge's decision to grant class-action status "a major victory for the working women of America." "A lot of working women in this country are single and have children and have to pinch their pennies to make ends meet," he said. He said the company saves about million a month by denying birth control coverage. Wal-Mart attorney Mark Casciari noted that the judge had yet to address the merits of the lawsuit and had declined to include male Wal-Mart employees whose spouses use birth control. "For that reason, I don't see this as a major victory for anybody," Casciari told reporters. The company is reviewing the ruling and hasn't decided whether to appeal, Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz said Saturday. (Agencies) | 美國零售巨頭沃爾瑪公司最近惹上了一起官司，被指控其拒絕支付女員工的節(jié)育健康保險費用的作法有失公平。近日，一聯(lián)邦法官宣布將此案定為集體訴訟案。 美國地方法院法官朱莉·卡恩斯30日宣布，凡是2001年3月之后加入沃爾瑪集團--這家全美最大的零售巨頭的女員工，只要是使用處方性避孕藥的，都可以參與此案向公司追索保險費。 莉薩·史密斯·莫爾丁是沃爾瑪希拉姆分店的客戶服務經(jīng)理。她于2001年10月向法庭提出訴訟，認為沃爾瑪公司的有關健康保障方面的規(guī)章是不合法的，并要求公司向她和其他員工償付未參保的處方性避孕藥費用。 莉薩的律師喬治·斯泰因認為，法官對這一集體訴訟案的裁決是"美國職業(yè)婦女的一次重大勝利。" 他說："許多在職的美國婦女都是單身并有孩子，生活常常捉襟見肘。"他認為沃爾瑪公司沒有為女員工支付節(jié)育方面的費用，這樣就每月減少了約500萬美元的支出。 而沃爾瑪?shù)穆蓭燅R克·卡夏里在接受采訪時則談到，法官還沒有對案件的實質(zhì)進行裁決，也沒有同意涉及公司男員工配偶的節(jié)育保險費用問題。 卡夏里說："這樣看來，我認為這個案子未必對每個人都是一個勝利"。 沃爾瑪公司的發(fā)言人比爾·沃茨31日說，沃爾瑪公司現(xiàn)在正在重新審視規(guī)章制度的制定程序，但目前還沒有決定是否要提出上訴。 (中國日報網(wǎng)站譯)
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Updated: 2002-09-04 01:00
