Wal-Mart Settles Bias Suit

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to pay $55,000 to a former customer-services manager and provide extra training at its stores to settle an age-discrimination suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The world’s biggest retailer agreed to make the payment to Glynell Killian to settle the 1999 EEOC lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago. Killian was 47 when she complained in 1997 that she had been passed over for promotion because of her age at the Wal-Mart store in the Chicago suburb of Hodgkins, Ill., EEOC lawyer Tana Lin said.

Killian was demoted to floor associate and later refused reinstatement to her original customer-services position because of her complaints, the EEOC said.

After she complained to the EEOC, Wal-Mart fired her, the suit alleged.

Shares of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart fell 75 cents to $47.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.