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Is it ok for an employer to have a "Look" policy?

Posted by gemgemsxx • 6/25/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: discrimination, fashion, news

Abercrombie & Fitch are being sued by an ex employee for discrimination. The student who worked at their Saville Row store has a prosthetic limb and did not mention this at interview. She was initially told that she could wear a cardigan however she has said that she was then relegated to the store room because she did not fit on with the stores "Look" policy. Her claim is based on disability discrimination and she is claiming that she was bullied and her confidence was destroyed because she was encouraged to hide her prosthetic limb away from the public.
Brands often like beautiful people to represent them on the sales floor, as well as in magazines and on the catwalk. While disability discrimination is illegal and cannot be justified is it ok for an employee to have a "Look" policy?

Further details of the story are at www.easilysorted.co.uk

User Comments

6/25/09

Avellar

This isn't A&F's first lawsuit over employee discrimination and "look" policy. This company is just horrible on how they treat their employees. The last lawsuit cost them close to $50 million and this new on will likely get resolved out of court for a good amount as well.

This company continues to have problems with Sex and Race descrimination.

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6/25/09

Bullgrit

Considering what I've seen of A&F, I'm surprised they let the employees wear clothes at all:
www.totalbullgrit.com/2007/08/20/naked-models-and-loud-music/

In general, I don't have a problem with a "look" policy -- this kind of store is basically looking for models. If their shoppers (kids) care, then they'll take their business elsewhere. If they don't care, then they don't care.

But if the girl in question had the "look", then I don't see how a prosthetic limb detracts from it. I could understand a gnarled stump making some folks kind of squirrely, but if the stump is covered with a prosthetic (that doesn't look like something from Edward Scissorhands), I wonder what the problem was.

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6/25/09

lotusb

I think people are way too sensitive when it come to this kind of thing. I mean if a store or business wants to keep all their employees thin, young and uniform then so be it. I got turned down from working at a plus size store and didn't go cry about it....people need to grow some balls and quit bitchin.

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8/21/09

gemgemsxx

Abercrombie & Fitch have been forced to pay damages for wrongful dismissal but were not found guilty of disability discrimination so and so it is unlikely to set a precedent for an improvement in working conditions for those with a disability.
Will they change their "look" poicy? Unlikely- they have been criticised for it in the best and are still a best selling brand that likes to market towards the young and beautiful. If people keep buying into it why would they change?

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8/21/09

SweetViolet

Go here and read about Christine Craft en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Craft who was fired by a TV network: ...she became co-anchor of KMBC-TV with Scott Feldman on the 6pm and 10 pm newscasts. The newscasts jumped from third to first in the ratings. ...eight months into her two-year contract Craft was removed from the anchor position after a focus group had determined she was "too old, too unattractive and wouldn't defer to men."

So she sued...she won...twice: ...Craft filed a TITLE VII lawsuit against Metromedia...a federal jury in Kansas City awarded her $500,000 in damages. The federal judge overturned the award and ordered a second trial, this time in Joplin, Missouri. The second jury also awarded her the same $500,000. Metromedia appealed and the 8th Circuit Court subsequently overturned the decision. Craft's appeal of the United States Supreme Court's decision was denied.

It's easy to say "suck it up" when you are not the target du jour, but it's a whole different ball game when you are.

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8/21/09

kdawg68

I doubt Hooters would hire me to wait tables. Furthermore, don't most "adult dance" establishments pretty much hire, you know...pretty girls? (depends on definition of "pretty" I guess).

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1. 8/21/09
  
  melindaville
  
  Yes they do. As a former exotic dancer at the most exclusive strip club in San Francisco, they were VERY picky about who they hired. They had very strict standards--in that club I would say that 8 out of 10 girls who came in were rejected. If you *did* get hired there, you made tons of money--I never EVER made less than a thousand dollars a day dancing there--and usually, I made about twice that. Every day.
  
  God I wished I would have saved some of that money!
8/21/09

lotusb

I could care less, to be honest. I mean why should it matter that a clothing company want their employees to have a certain look. They do that for their ads, so whats wrong with doing it for their cashiers. Frankly I like knowing that if I want to see a nice peice of man-candy I can go "browsing" at AF. Although I wouldn't be caught dead in any of thier stuff...

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1. 8/21/09
  
  legbamel
  
  But apparently she was "hot" enough to get hired in the first place. It was the prosthetic limb that got her out of the commission-earning sales job and into the store room. That's crap. If I were them I'd have made her a freakin' spokesperson and flaunted my changed attitude after the last lawsuit. That they hid her in the back room until she quit makes them stupid and apparently in need of being taught another lesson, the last one having failed to take.
8/21/09

Shiley

I knew a girl who applied to be a fashion designer for Abercrombie. When she did a walk through she was intimidated. Everyone was a particular height and all the designers looked like fashion models. For a bunch of people that for the most part will never be seen I think they take it too far. She knew she wouldn't get hired because she was short.

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8/21/09

trailofpen

I had a friend who is a pretty good looking guy (looks like an Abercrombie model). He went to apply there and this was how his interview went, "So, do you like Starbucks?" his reply, "Yeah" managers reply, "You're hired." True story. I so kid you not!

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1. 8/21/09
  
  TJlubrano
  
  Wow that was the quickest job interview I've ever heard :|
2. 8/21/09
  
  Stillthinking
  
  I'm not surprised by this story.
  
  It's not a secret that retailers hire attractive people to sell their merchandise, but Abercrombie takes it to an all new level.
8/21/09

Agit8r

more like Abercrombie and Fascism

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1. 8/21/09
  
  melindaville
  
  Heh heh--exactly.
8/21/09

LolitaV

As an employer, i do have a look policy. It's simple:

Do you shower, wear deodorant, keep your nails clean and wash your hands ever time?

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