Workforce reduction cuts along gender lines

Description

Abstract: When a moving company laid off 12 women and one man, four of the laid-off female employees sued it in federal court, alleging gender discrimination on the theory of disparate impact. The plaintiffs challenged the company’s “particular employment practice” of selecting only predominantly female departments for the RIF, but the appeals court explained that the only questions were whether there was an identifiable disparity and, if so, whether the challenged employment practice could have caused the disparity. The court then ran a statistical analysis to help it arrive at a decision. Shollenbarger v. Planes Moving and Storage, 297 Fed. Appx. 483 (6th Cir. 2008)