EEOC Finds Wet Seal Discriminated Against African-American Store Manager
After a three-year investigation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that juniors retailer The Wet Seal Inc. discriminated against an African-American former store manager in Pennsylvania.
The court case is scheduled for a hearing in December 2013 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
This is just one of many problems plaguing the Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based retailer. It recently fired its chief executive, was subject to a hostile takeover and revamped its board of directors while mapping out a new strategy to boost sagging sales.
Wet Seal reacted to the long-brewing case by announcing guidelines prohibiting discrimination and harassment. If employees want to make a discrimination or harassment complaint, they are encouraged to contact a Wet Seal human-resources representative or contact Global Compliance. Global Compliance is a Charlotte, N.C.–based consulting firm that sets up employee-complaint hotlines as well as runs workshops on ending sexual harassment in the workplace.
The Wet Seal discrimination case made national headlines this year, and the facts of this case seemed striking, said Doug Lipstone, a partner in law firm Enenstein & Ribakoff.
Discrimination cases often don’t make headlines because larger companies look to proactively deal with bias and harassment issues. “A lot of insurance companies require that companies go through certain training to handle issues like these,” Lipstone said.
To cut risk with discrimination and harassment, Lipstone recommended companies institute well-defined policies against discrimination, offer employee training and also keep detailed records on employee performance if the company must deal with an employee complaint.
Wet Seal’s EEOC determination covered the case of Nicole Cogdell, a former Wet Seal store manager at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania.
In 2009, Barbara Bachman, Wet Seal’s former senior vice president of store operations, wrote a report that Wet Seal employees needed “to have ‘the Armani look, were white, had blue eyes, thin and blond’ in order to be profitable.”Bachman wrote that Cogdell was “not right for this store.”
Cogdell reported seeing Bachman’s report before she resigned from the company in March 2009. Bachman left the company in 2011.—A.A.
