More Employees Seek to Join A&F Suit
More former employees are looking to join the class-action suit against Abercrombie & Fitch Co., according to attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
Attorneys in the case said they have received hundreds of calls from people who have accused the retailer of hiring a disproportionate number of white salespeople and of putting minorities in less visible positions than their white counterparts. After these former employees are interviewed, they may be added to the complaint, which attorneys hope to have certified as a class-action lawsuit.
“We have been receiving quite a few inquiries from former employees and witnesses,” said Minah Park of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, an attorney representing the Asian and Latino plaintiffs listed in the original lawsuit. “It is in the hundreds. They are all over the country.”
Even though attorneys filed the discrimination lawsuit in mid-June, they did not serve the lawsuit until early July, which delays the time A&F has to respond to the complaint.
Attorneys representing former A&F employees said it took three extra weeks to serve the lawsuit because of confusion over which agency was authorized to accept the lawsuit for the New Albany, Ohio–based clothing chain.
“The entity we thought was authorized to receive the lawsuit [in California] was not authorized to receive the lawsuit,” said Bill Lann Lee of the San Francisco law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, one of several attorneys representing the nine plaintiffs listed on the complaint.
Instead, attorneys served the lawsuit on July 8 to the Columbus, Ohio–based law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, which will be representing Abercrombie & Fitch in the matter. After being served, the clothing company has 20 days to respond to the complaint.
Attorneys filed the federal lawsuit against A&F on June 16 in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
In the federal lawsuit, nine Asian and Hispanic plaintiffs, primarily from Southern California, said that A&F discriminated against African-Americans, Latinos and Asians by enforcing a nationwide corporate policy that preferred white employees for sales positions, desirable job assignments and favorable work schedules.
In a statement, the casual-clothing chain said the charges were baseless and that it has zero tolerance for discrimination in its hiring policy.
Shortly after attorneys filed the discrimination lawsuit in San Francisco, A&F settled a suit with California labor regulators over allegations that it had forced its employees to buy its clothing to wear on the job. The agreement applied to nearly 11,000 people who had worked at Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister Co. and abercrombie stores in the state between Jan. 1, 1999, and Feb. 15, 2002.
Under the terms of the $2.2 million settlement, the chain cannot force workers to buy its clothes and must reimburse former employees $200 to $490 for clothing purchased during their employment. —Deborah Belgum
