Companies back Wal-Mart in discrimination case

Companies back Wal-Mart in discrimination case    UPS is among several large companies that want the Supreme Court to review whether a job discrimination case brought by a half-dozen female employees at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club Stories can be expanded into a class action that could involve hundreds of thousands of workers, according to the Associated Press.
   On Monday, the Supreme Court decided to hear Wal-Mart's appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the class-action lawsuit can go forward.
   The suit against Wal-Mart contends that the women workers are paid less and promoted less often than men. The Supreme Court will not decide the merits of the case, only whether other claims can piggyback on the original suit.
   Wal-Mart said it doesn't have a discrimination policy and that individual suits should be filed against individual stores.
   General Electric, Pepsico Inc., Bank of America and Altria Corp. also asked the Supreme Court to take the case.