Skip to main content

Menards appeals discrimination award

2/20/2018

Home improvement chain Menard Inc. filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on May 14 in an effort to overturn an appeals court decision in a gender discrimination case. Menards is fighting a lower court’s order to reinstate Dawn Sands, the company’s former VP and executive general counsel, who has already collected approximately $1.5 million in back pay and damages.

According to court records, Sands was terminated from Menards in 2006 after asserting her rights to pay that was equal to what similarly situated male executives received. Her annual salary was $175,000.

An arbitration panel upheld Sands’ discrimination claim and also found that company president John Menard had retaliated against Sands. It awarded her compensatory and punitive damages and ordered Menard to reinstate Sands to her position with a specified salary.

Menard refused to rehire Sands and appealed the arbitration panel’s decision to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. In an April 14 ruling, the appeals court upheld the arbitration panel’s findings. Although neither Sands nor Menard wanted her back working in the company’s Eau Claire, Wis., offices, the appellate judges decided not to award “front pay” (roughly two years salary) in lieu of reinstatement.

“[It] would, in some sense, reward the company for its mistreatment of her and, moreover, would tend to send the wrong message to company employees who otherwise might be inclined to make meritorious complaints about unlawful conduct occurring within the company,” the appellate judges wrote.

John Menard also asked the appeals court to take judicial note of the fact that Debra Sands, Dawn’s sister, has filed a civil action against him. The judges ruled this case as “irrelevant.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court determines which cases it will hear based on criteria described in the Wisconsin Statues. A spokeswoman for the court could give no timetable for the justices’ review of Menard's petition.

Menards is the industry’s third largest chain of home improvement retail warehouses, with more than 200 locations throughout the Midwest.

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds