Judges deny class certification in Sterling Jewelers discrimination suit

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jul 28, 2017

Sterling Jewelers this week has come away with another breakthrough in its discrimination case. The second US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied the class certification of 70,000 women in their case against the Signet-owned jewelry retailer.
 

The gender discrimination case against Sterling Jewelers from 2008 grew to include 69,000 women that were both currently employed and formerly employed by the company.
 
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in May said that the company did not have to pay a monetary award for the suit as there were “no findings of liability and wrongdoing.” The three-judge panel of the second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan disagreed with a lower-court judge’s ruling that the women could proceed as a group, even with members who didn’t opt-in.

Since the discrimination suit went public in February, Sterling’s parent company formed a board committee for the advancement of female employees and named Virginia Drosos as CEO, effective August 1, 2017.