In the days and weeks leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling in the historic Wal-Mart class action discrimination case, other companies with pending litigation had to make a decision: settle with the plaintiffs prior to the court decision or wait until the ruling came out, taking the risk that the decision may not be in the company's favor. Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. fell into the former category, choosing to settle class action employment lawsuit just days before the Wal-Mart ruling was announced.

The employment discrimination lawsuit was filed in California court in 2005. In the suit, the nine plaintiffs, consisting of eight current and former Best Buy employees and one job applicant, alleged that the company discriminated against minorities and women by denying promotions and desirable job assignments and transfers to African-American, Latino and female employees and applicants.

Earlier this month, Best Buy settled with the plaintiffs, agreeing to pay $200,000 to each of the nine, plus up to $10 million for attorneys fees and other legal costs. In addition, the company agreed to a four-year program known as a consent decree. Under this program, Best Buy will implement "comprehensive affirmative relief addressing the hiring, assignment, promotion and exempt compensation claims."

Best Buy will reportedly create a position tasked with overseeing the implementation of processes that are designed to increase and improve diversity in management, as well as posting the company's non-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policies on its internal employee website.

A California judge will decide whether to approve the settlement agreement in early August.

Source: Reuters, "Best Buy settles class-action bias lawsuit," Martinne Geller and Dhanya Skariachan, 17 June 2011