Low-paid women get big money to file harassment suits
Gina Pitre had come to dread working at Walmart. A manager, she said, used to touch her inappropriately and make suggestive comments.
Pitre, 56, who earned $11.50 an hour fulfilling online orders in D’iberville, Mississippi, said she felt degraded and angry.
Pitre saw a television news segment this winter about how female Hollywood stars and producers had started Time’s Up, a group to help women combat harassment. A related initiative, the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, connected Pitre with a lawyer and is helping fund her lawsuit against Walmart and one of its managers.
Hollywood, it appears, is starting to make good on its promise to focus on women outside the limelight and broaden the #Metoo movement.
Filed last month, the lawsuit, one of the first to arise from the Time’s Up fund, is part of a multipronged approach. Beyond the various legal aspects, the group is working with labor and social activists, as well as communications specialists and others, to publicize the struggles of working women facing harassment on the job.
Actress Susan Sarandon, along with Pitre, female Walmart workers and labor activists, signed a letter to the retailer’s chief executive, demanding changes in the company’s policies and procedures around harassment.
“I don’t care who you are,” said Pitre, who left her job at Walmart last month. “There is no cause for disrespect.”
In a statement, Walmart said it had conducted a “comprehensive investigation” into Pitre’s complaints and “could not substantiate a violation of our Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Policy.”
“We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all sexual harassment allegations,” the statement added.
Since its launch in January, the Time’s Up fund — which is administered by the National Women’s Law Center in Washington — has raised about $22 million in donations to help pay for legal representation and other