Only 3 doctors have joined wage-discrimination lawsuit

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Attorneys for Southern Illinois University School of Medicine indicate they will ask a judge to dismiss part of a lawsuit alleging wage discrimination because few female doctors have joined the litigation.

The State Journal-Register reports three current and former faculty members at the school have joined the federal lawsuit filed in 2015.

SIU's lawyers noted in a January filing in U.S. District Court in Springfield that attorneys for former SIU surgeon Dr. Sajida Ahad were given permission by the court to inform nearly 130 female doctors on how they could join the "collective action."

The university's lawyers in the filing indicated they would seek to reverse the "collective action" Judge Sue Myerscough granted last year.

Plaintiff attorney J. Bryan Wood says it isn't a surprise doctors haven't joined the lawsuit. He says female doctors are busy and haven't looked into the option of joining the case.