|
BRAD SELIGMAN (SBN 083838) JOCELYN
D. LARKIN (SBN 110817) THE
IMPACT FUND 125
University Avenue Berkeley,
CA 94710 Telephone: (510)
845-3473 Facsimile: (510) 845-3654 |
JOSEPH
SELLERS CHRISTINE
WEBBER CHARLES
TOMPKINS JULIE
GOLDSMITH COHEN,
MILSTEIN, HAUSFELD & TOLL West
Tower – Suite 500 1100
New York Avenue Washington,
D.C. 20005-3964 Telephone: (202) 408-4600 Facsimile: (202) 408-4699 |
|
IRMA
D. HERRERA (SBN 98658) DEBRA
A. SMITH (SBN 147863) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 1663
Mission Street, Suite 250 San
Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone: (415)
621-0672 Facsimile: (415) 621-6744 |
STEPHEN
TINKLER MERIT
BENNETT TINKLER
& BENNETT 309
Johnson Street Santa
Fe, New Mexico 87501 Telephone: (505) 986-0269 Facsimile: (505) 982-6698 |
|
SHEILA
Y. THOMAS (SBN 161403) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 5260
Proctor Avenue Oakland,
CA 94618 Telephone: (510) 339-3739 Facsimile: (510) 339-3723 |
DEBRA
GARDNER PUBLIC
JUSTICE CENTER 500
East Lexington Street Baltimore,
MD 21202 Telephone: (410) 625-9409 Facsimile: (410) 625-9423 |
|
STEVE
STEMERMAN (SBN 067690) ELIZABETH
LAWRENCE (SBN 111781) DAVIS,
COWELL & BOWE 100
Van Ness Avenue, 20th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
626-1880 Facsimile: (415) 626-2860 Attorneys for Plaintiffs |
SHAUNA
MARSHALL (SBN 90641) HASTINGS
COLLEGE OF THE LAW 200
McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
565-4685 Facsimile: (415) 565-4854 |
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
|
BETTY DUKES, PATRICIA
SURGESON, CLEO PAGE, CHRISTINE KWAPNOSKI, DEBORAH GUNTER, KAREN WILLIAMSON
AND EDITH ARANA, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, vs. WAL-MART
STORES, INC., Defendant
|
Case No. C-01-2252 MJJ DECLARATION OF CAROLYN
PERKINS IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION |
I, CAROLYN E. PERKINS, declare:
1.
I worked at Wal-Mart from November 1998 to September
2001. I worked at two stores in North
Carolina, the Aberdeen store and the Laurinburg store. Both were Supercenters. I am female.
2.
I was hired in November 1998 as a sales associate in
softlines at a pay rate of $5.75/hour.
This low hourly wage was given to me despite the fact that, on the job
application, I requested a starting wage of $6.50 to $7.00/hour. I thought that I should have been paid more
because I had prior retail experience. I
had most recently been making $7.50/hour managing a convenience store. I asked the personnel manager, Tina [Last
Name Unknown], why the starting wage was so low, and she said that’s just what
the starting wage was.
3.
While I was working in softlines at Wal-Mart, I alerted store management to 13 customers who were shoplifting in the
store during a three-week period.
Because of these
efforts, I was transferred to loss prevention in August 1999. My starting pay in loss prevention was $7.50/hour.
4.
For two years, I worked as a loss prevention associate. I always received satisfactory performance
evaluations.
5.
During those two years, there were up to six
[numbers under 10 always spelled out] other employees, all men, working
loss prevention in the same District.
One of them, James Watkins, kept telling me that he made a lot more
money than I did. He started saying this
about three months after I was transferred to loss prevention. He said he made almost twice what I was
making.
6.
In about December 2000, when I was making $9.00/hour,
I complained to my supervisor, Jeff Cope, about the pay difference. He said he would check into it and get back
to me, but he never did. I kept after
him to raise my pay. Sometimes he just
said it wasn’t in the budget. Other
times he said that he would have to ask his supervisor, Tim [Last Name
Unknown], the Regional Manager for Loss Prevention, but then he would never get
back to me.
7. In about April 2001 I became aware that many of the men working loss prevention in our
district were making more per hour than I was, including James Watkins, Steve
Mann, Chad [Last Name Unknown], Jason Evans, Vince Bustillo, and Derek “Keith”
Todd. Some of these men had been working
at Wal-Mart less time than I had. I learned
about the pay differences because James Watkins had a special code to get into
the computer and sometimes he would pull up all the pay rates. He showed them to me as well as several other
people. I recall that the male loss prevention associates made at least $1 to
$4 more per hour than I did. [Note to Betty – DKStat
shows that Watkins was making $12.68 at end-of-year 2000, Mann was making
$9.57, Todd was making $8.32 (in November, 2001 he was raised to $10.00),
Bustillo was making $9.45. Data for the
others is not available. Ms. Perkins
recalls that she saw in the computer that Watkins was making $14.55, Mann was
making $10, Chad was making $12.25, Evans was making $12.50 and Bustillo was
making $11.50. Not sure what to do with
these discrepancies, so I left out any references to specific dollar amounts.]
8. I complained to Loss Prevention Manager
Cope after this happened. I told him I
did not think it was fair that I should be making so much less money than all
the men, especially because I usually made more apprehensions (caught more
shoplifters) than they did. In fact,
there were many months in which I exceeded my quota. However, Manager Cope would take some of my apprehensions
away from me on the monthly report and give them to some of the guys to bring
them up to their quotas. After I
complained about my pay, Cope said he would check into it. He also said he would talk to Regional
Manager Tim [Last Name Unknown] about it.
When I hadn’t heard anything back, I reminded him again three or four
weeks later, but he never got back to me.
9. One time I spoke directly to Regional
Manager Tim [Last Name Unknown] about it.
He said he could understand why I was upset at not getting paid as much
as the men, especially because I was working in a Supercenter. However, he did nothing to correct the pay
difference.
10. In about May 2001 I called the Wal-Mart
“800” number. I told the person I spoke
to about the pay disparities. She took
my name and telephone number and said she would get back to me, but I never
heard from her. Within days of that
phone call, I received a coaching for unintentionally working more than 40
hours in a week resulting in a small amount of overtime. I had never received any discipline or
coaching before and I don’t think the timing was a coincidence. During the same pay period, James Watkins and
Steve Mann had both worked more than 40 hours, and as far as I know neither one
of them got coached for it.
11.
In June 2001, Jeff Cope wrote me up again. He claimed
that I was not making enough apprehensions.
As noted above, a number of male loss prevention associates did not meet
their apprehension quotas but, as far as I know, they did not get written up
for it. I had also missed my quota
previously, but I had never been disciplined for it before.
12.
In September, 2001, I was terminated. I stopped a boy whom I observed taking a pair
of earrings off a display and putting them in his right front pocket. The boy refused to admit he had taken the
earrings when I stopped him, and his mother later complained about to
management. My supervisor, Jeff Cope,
claimed this was a questionable stop and terminated me for it. I was aware of male loss prevention associates
making similar or more “questionable” stops and they were not disciplined for
it, let alone fired. For example, on one
occasion Steve Mann, who was also working in the Laurinburg store, stopped a
young male whom he had observed shoplifting a watch. When Mann approached the young man outside
the store and questioned him about having taken the watch, the man denied it,
caused a big ruckus, and threatened to sue.
I was at the store that day and heard about the incident from Mann. Assistant Manager Jimmy Atkins informed Jeff
Cope about the incident, but as far as I know Mann was not disciplined for it
and he certainly was not fired.
13. I have personal knowledge of each and
every fact set forth in the Declaration, and if called to testify as a witness
in this matter, I could and would competently testify to each of these facts.
I
declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States and State of
North Carolina that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ______________________, 2003, at
_______________________.
______________________________
49:C:\Documents\eal\c-walm dec supp class cert.doc
02/06/2003 3:34:38 PM