Wal-Mart Discrimination Suit Plaintiff to Speak in Lenox

LENOX, Mass. — Cynthia Haddad, who won a gender discrimination lawsuit against Walmart, the world's largest retailer, will speak about her experiences Monday, March 1, at the monthly meeting of Berkshire Business and Professional Women.

A unanimous decision by the state Supreme Judical Court on Oct. 5, 2009, awarded Haddad, a former Pittsfield Walmart pharmacist, a judgment of at least $2 million in damages. That decision upheld a June 2007 Berkshire Superior Court ruling that awarded Haddad $1 million for compensatory damages and another $1 million for punitive damages after Haddad claimed she was fired for demanding the same compensation as her male colleagues.

According to a Berkshire Eagle story on Oct. 6, 2009, Haddad was fired in 2004 after working at Walmart for more than 10 years, seven of them at the Pittsfield store. The company claimed she was fired because she left the pharmacy unattended and allowed a technician to use her computer security code to issue prescriptions in her absence. Haddad and her legal team said Haddad was really fired because she demanded to be paid as well as her male counterparts, including a bonus given to pharmacy managers. The company paid the bonus, then fired her two weeks later.

"I think that the Supreme Judicial Court confirmed that outrageous gender discrimination may be punished by a jury," co-counsel David Belfort said in the Eagle story. "More broadly, this is hopefully going to encourage women to have the fortitude to speak out if they are discriminated against based on who they are."

Born and raised in Oswego, N.Y., Haddad was in the baccalaureate program at Oswego High School, attending the State University of New York at Oswego while in high school. After attending SUNY-Oswego for two years, she transferred into the pharmacy program at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences in Boston, graduating in 1984. She also completed a certification program in nuclear medicine.

Other than clinical rotations, Haddad has worked in the retail pharmacy setting her whole career and has belonged to numerous professional organizations, such as the American Pharmacists Association, over the years.

Haddad is married to William Haddad and has four children, ages 14 to 23. Her oldest son has Asperger's Syndrome and she continues to teach him self-advocacy, something she learned as a child from her own mother.

The March 1 meeting will be held at Cranwell Resort in Lenox. Networking begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and the speakers at 6 p.m. The cost is $28; reservations are required by Friday, Feb. 26. Info: mphillips@greylock.org.