A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit that claims Wal-Mart's denial of health insurance coverage for birth control is unfair to female employees. U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes said Friday that all women working for the nation's largest retailer after March 2001 could pursue claims against the company if they were using prescription contraceptives.  Lisa Smith Mauldin, a customer-service manager at a Wal-Mart store in Hiram, filed the lawsuit in October asking the court to declare the company's health plan illegal and to order Wal-Mart to reimburse her and other employees for uninsured prescription contraceptives.
Her lawyer, George Stein, called the judge's decision to grant class-action status "a major victory for the working women of America." "A lot of working women in this country are single and have children and have to pinch their pennies to make ends meet," he said. He said the company saves about million a month by denying birth control coverage. Wal-Mart attorney Mark Casciari noted that the judge had yet to address the merits of the lawsuit and had declined to include male Wal-Mart employees whose spouses use birth control. "For that reason, I don't see this as a major victory for anybody," Casciari told reporters. The company is reviewing the ruling and hasn't decided whether to appeal, Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz said Saturday. (Agencies) | 美国零售巨头沃尔玛公司最近惹上了一起官司，被指控其拒绝支付女员工的节育健康保险费用的作法有失公平。近日，一联邦法官宣布将此案定为集体诉讼案。 美国地方法院法官朱莉·卡恩斯30日宣布，凡是2001年3月之后加入沃尔玛集团--这家全美最大的零售巨头的女员工，只要是使用处方性避孕药的，都可以参与此案向公司追索保险费。 莉萨·史密斯·莫尔丁是沃尔玛希拉姆分店的客户服务经理。她于2001年10月向法庭提出诉讼，认为沃尔玛公司的有关健康保障方面的规章是不合法的，并要求公司向她和其他员工偿付未参保的处方性避孕药费用。 莉萨的律师乔治·斯泰因认为，法官对这一集体诉讼案的裁决是"美国职业妇女的一次重大胜利。" 他说："许多在职的美国妇女都是单身并有孩子，生活常常捉襟见肘。"他认为沃尔玛公司没有为女员工支付节育方面的费用，这样就每月减少了约500万美元的支出。 而沃尔玛的律师马克·卡夏里在接受采访时则谈到，法官还没有对案件的实质进行裁决，也没有同意涉及公司男员工配偶的节育保险费用问题。 卡夏里说："这样看来，我认为这个案子未必对每个人都是一个胜利"。 沃尔玛公司的发言人比尔·沃茨31日说，沃尔玛公司现在正在重新审视规章制度的制定程序，但目前还没有决定是否要提出上诉。 (中国日报网站译)
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Updated: 2002-09-04 01:00
