Overview LENAHAN, et al. v. SEARS ROEBUCK CO. SINGLETON v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MOLIERI v. SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT LOPEZ v. SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CAMPOS v. SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY FUSCO et. al. v. AMERICAN AIRLINES SATCHELL et. al. v. FEDEX Pharmacist Litigation HMO Employee Litigation BATES v. UPS University of California

SINGLETON v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

SINGLETON v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Situation
Some 3,200 female employees of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory alleged they were discriminated against in pay and promotions.

Summary
The class action lawsuit charged that female lab employees in a variety of job categories were paid less and had fewer opportunities for advancement than male employees with comparable education and equal experience. The lawsuit contended that the lab’s system of making annual salary adjustments based on an employee’s "Relative Value Rank" -- a number that supposedly reflected an assessment of the employee’s total contribution to the lab as compared to other employees -- was overly subjective and allowed gender stereotyping and biases to influence decisions. The class action lawsuit also alleged that the lab had documented, but failed to correct, discrimination against women for more than a decade.

Result
The lab dramatically overhauled its performance management system, including its system of Relative Value Ranking (RVR), and its human resource practices. In addition to these major reforms, the lab paid $9.7 million in damages to the class members plus an additional $80,000 to the seven representative plaintiffs, and also increased the base salary of all class members by 1 percent, with the increase totaling about $850,000 in the first year alone.