BELLEVILLE – Several Walmart employees have filed a discrimination lawsuit against the corporate giant, claiming they were targets of racism.
Plaintiffs Kimberly Long, Fern Scott and Dawn Triplett filed the lawsuit in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Walmart, Inc., citing discrimination and retaliatory termination.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs individually filed charges of discrimination against the defendant in 2022 with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and have received notices of Right to Sue the defendant.
Plaintiff Long states she is an African American female and was hired to work for a Walmart store in O'Fallon in 2007. She claims she has worked for the company for 15 years without issue and was eventually assigned to work at the store's money center. Long alleges she and other employees were targeted by a supervisor for discrimination. She claims that when she reported the discrimination to the human resources department, her weekly hours were cut.
Long adds that after 15 years of employment with the company, she was making $15 per hour–the same wage that new hires were getting upon being hired. She states that when she reported this wage discrepancy to the human resources department, she was reprimanded and didn't receive a raise.
Long states that in April 2022, she was accused of stealing or mishandling a $1,500 money order transaction and written up. She claims that she would be denied a promotion if she didn't sign the write-up admitting to the misconduct. In May, she was twice again accused of theft/misconduct, was removed from the money department, and was eventually terminated on May 23, 2022.
Plaintiff Scott states she is an African American female hired to work for the same Walmart in 2016 and has worked for the company for 6 years without issue. She claims she was trained to work at the money center by Long and was subjected to similar discriminatory behavior by her supervisor. From January 2022 until March 2022, Scott claims she was accused of stealing or mishandling the cash in her drawer three times. Scott states that in March 2022, she resigned from her position upon learning that other employees accused of stealing or mishandling cash were all Black employees.
Plaintiff Triplett states that she is a Muslim African American female and was hired to work for the company in 2007. She allegedly worked for the company for 15 years without issue, eventually working as an optician in the store's Vision Department.
Triplett states that beginning on Jan. 20, 2021, she was the target of constant racist and religious discrimination by another employee and her supervisor. Triplett states that she reported the discriminatory behavior to the human resources department several times, but claims the employees were not reprimanded and that her hours were cut.
According to Tripplet, the discrimination continued for more than a year. Despite her repeated complaints to other supervisors and the human resources department claiming she didn't feel safe or comfortable, investigations into the alleged behavior were never concluded. Triplett states that she received notice that she was terminated in November 2022.
The plaintiffs state that due to the defendant's misconduct, they have suffered emotional and financial distress. They are demanding a jury trial to seek damages in excess of $50,000 and any other relief the court deems proper.
They are represented in this case by attorney W. Wylie Blair and Breanna L. Flowers of Onder Law, LLC in St. Louis.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 23LA0371