The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that as many as 1.6 million women who are current or former Wal-Mart employees cannot sue Wal-Mart for pay discrimination in a class-action suit. A lower court had ruled that the women could join together in a class action.

But the court did not rule on the women’s claims of systematic and company-wide pay and promotion discrimination.

Ten years ago, a group of women who worked at Wal-Mart stores, led by Betty Dukes, filed a lawsuit alleging the corporation engaged in company-wide gender discrimination by paying women less than men, promoting fewer women to management positions and promoting male employees more quickly.

United Food and Commercial Workers ( UFCW ) President Joe Hansen called the decision “deeply disturbing.” The UFCW has been a longtime supporter of Wal-Mart workers’ fight for justice.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says working people are disappointed by today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Wal-Mart. 

Our courts should be available to working men and women who seek to challenge discriminatory promotion and pay practices by their employers.  Today’s decision continues a disturbing trend of closing the courthouse doors to workers seeking redress against corporations.

The ruling means the already uphill battle for women to fight pay discrimination will get even worse. John Nichols at The Nation writes that the ruling is “a big win for Wal-Mart, and for other large firms that may not choose to treat employees fairly.” The court ruled on the grounds that

the class-action status that could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers was too large.

In other words, because there is reason to believe that Wal-Mart discriminated against hundreds of thousands of women, as opposed to just a few, the company cannot be held to account for any lawlessness.

Tomorrow, in several cities across the country, fair pay activists will hold rallies protesting the court’s ruling and calling for quick passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182). The bill would give employees the tools they need to close the wage gap between men and women , close loopholes in the equal pay act and provide the government with enforcement power to correct pay inequities.

National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) Co-President Marcia D. Greenberger says that ruling is a:

devastating decision undoing the rights of millions of women across the country to come together and hold their employers accountable for their discriminatory practices. The court has told employers that they can rest easy, knowing that the bigger and more powerful they are, the less likely their employees will be able to come together to secure their rights. Women now have fewer rights to challenge discrimination than before today’s ruling…. Today’s ruling undermines the very purposes of the class action mechanism and is tantamount to closing the courthouse door on millions of women who cannot vindicate their rights one person at a time.

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, says the decision “is yet another example of the Supreme Court siding with large corporations to limit access to the courts for individuals seeking justice.”