EEOC V. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores: A Case Study

Congress amended Title VII in 1978 by passing the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and made it clear that discrimination based on pregnancy is unlawful sex discrimination. This legislation reversed the Supreme Court's Gilbert decision in 1976. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 which overruled several Supreme Court decisions rendered in the 1980s that had made it more difficult for plaintiffs to prevail in their employment discrimination suits and to recover fees and costs when they won their lawsuits (www.eeoc.gov). The amendment stated that parties can request jury trials and those successful plaintiffs can recover compensatory and punitive damages in employment discrimination cases. This amendment has

Finally, the district court applied Texas law to hold that the EEOC could not recover for Rafiq 's mental anguish because there was no evidence that the anguish or stress that Rafiq suffered "was so debilitating that it interrupted his daily life." In reaching this conclusion, the district court erred in two ways: (1) the availability of mental anguish damages for a Title VII claim is determined by federal law, not state law; and (2) the district court did not view the evidence in the light most favorable to the EEOC.

What did civil rights activists hope to gain by bringing this test case to the Supreme Court, and what really happened?

Jennifer alleges that she was terminated because of her pregnancy. She neglects the fact that Greene’s discharged her because her position, junior executive secretary, is redundant to the company. It is transparently that Jennifer is a member of protected class and was dismissed. Yet Greene’s did not violate The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) under Title VII. According to Title VII 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a), it is an unlawful employment practice if an employer discharges any individual because of such individual 's race,

In this case an African American father wanted to send his daughter to a close school but the school was not a black friendly school do to segregation she was not allowed to attend. The court decided that it was not constitutional and that it went against our equal rights.

I do not agree with the Court that the choice of a woman to work in a field superseded the paternalistic view that she may not be able to protect herself and must be discriminated against for her safety. There is a danger working in prisons no matter the gender of the employee. Some women, like some men, undoubtedly are not qualified and do not wish to serve as prison guards, but that does not justify the exclusion of all women from this employment opportunity. The Court's interpretation of the BFOQ exception would mandate hiring qualified women for guard jobs in maximum-security institutions. The highly successful experiences of other States allowing such job opportunities, such as the States of California and Washington as amici curiae (a party to the litigation to give advice), confirm that absolute disqualification of women is not, in the words of Title VII, reasonably necessary to the normal operation of a maximum-security prison. (Findlaw, n.d.). So, I do not agree that the close contact of females to inmates created a bona fide occupational qualifications situation where women

In this case the owner of the Heart of Atlanta Motel went to a federal district court to have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 declared unconstitutional. The Civil Rights Act sanctioned segregation on the basis of race. This business owner refused to rent his motel rooms to any minorities including blacks. He argued that he had the right to refuse service to anyone he didn't want at his motel. His motel was in a small town and his argument could of been valid if he only rented to local people.

Abercrombie and Fitch are a company that strongly targets a set group of people. With the goal of reaching this particular group of people they have implemented a “Look Policy,” in which an employee is supposed to look and dress like in order to work for the company. The purpose of performance management is to, “ensure that employees’ activities and outputs contribute to the organization’s goals” (Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2011, p.225). Abercrombie believes failure to comply with this policy “would disrupt its careful branding efforts, resulting in customer confusion, because of the critical role that the Look Policy plays in supporting its brand image. Dkt. No. 95 at 12. Second, Abercrombie argues that allowing exceptions to the Look Policy would hurt store performance” (Norlander, 2013, para. 2).

When Samantha Elauf went in for her job interview with Abercrombie & Fitch, she wore the headscarf traditional for a practicing Muslim. During the interview, her headscarf was not mentioned or discussed, but the store did take note of its presence and decided not to offer Elauf a job at the store after considering that she had most likely worn the headscarf for religious reasons and that it would be in violation of the store’s “Look Policy.”

Abercrombie & Fitch, the upscale clothing retailer known for its attractive sales assistant’s and models used for stores and advertisements has a long history of racism and sexism. Starting back in 2002, the company sold shirts that were racially insensitive to Asians, marketed thongs with sexual phrases on them to pre-teens, and made men shirts that read “Female students needed for sexual research.” These products were soon removed after they caused controversy among parents and young women. The company then faced charges that its branding and hiring practices are discriminatory. Their stores allow white people to work in the front while Asians, and African Americans work in the back. The company has been sued numerous times for for religious discrimination and discrimination against handicapped customers. Abercrombie & Fitch also doesnt stock womens pants above size 10, limiting their market to only slim and petite women.

First of all, yes we would seek preliminary injunction on behalf of the plaintiff for the following reasons. To demonstrate, the preliminary injunction which means a temporary order commanding a party to act or refrain from acting that is issued prior to; or during trial in order to prevent irreparable injury from occurring before the case is decided. In the present case, the defendant breached the contract and violated his duty by not delivering the parts to the plaintiff. In the contract a clause states that “failure to deliver these parts would constitute irreparable harm should US Auto seek to have a court enter an injunction directing the Italian company to provide the parts.” For this reason, the plaintiff has the contractual right

During that time that location, hired males and disregarded female applicants, and said order filling positions were not suitable for women. Although there were more qualified women who applied for positions they were denied solely on their gender which is unacceptable. This clearly violates Title VII because they are excluding women from employment based on their gender, and Walmart stores paid $11.7 million in back wages and compensatory damages, and up to $250,000 in administration fees and will furnish other relief, including jobs, to settle a sex discrimination

1. Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) uses US GAAP as its accounting standards, as required by US securities regulators and accounting conventions (2009 ANF Annual Report). The Securities and Exchange Commission strongly recommends the use of the most up-to-date GAAP taxonomy in the preparation of financial statements and communications for American public companies (SEC.gov, 2011). H&M is a Swedish company, and its stocks are listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm (Hm.com, 2012). Firms listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange are to prepare their financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the EU, and these principles must be used in the preparation of any financial report (NasdaqOMX.com, 2011).

This model was developed by Tom Peters, Robert Waterman and Julien Philips with a help from Richard Pascale and Anthony G. Athos in 80s and even now haven’t lost its relevance as management planning tool. Model presents 7 key elements of the company such as: Structure, Strategy, Skills, Staff, Style, Systems, and Shared Values. The main point of the model is that all the seven areas are interconnected and a change in one area requires change in the rest of a firm for it to function effectively.

Abercrombie & Fitch shouldn’t discriminate against anyone regardless of whoever they are. Over the years, the popular clothing brand has faced many lawsuits over their "look policy" discriminating against anyone who does not fit the “part”. Former twenty-two year old employee Riam Dean sued the company in 2009 for forcing her to work in stock since she was born without a left forearm so she wasn’t shown by customers.The company has also faced racial discrimination as well, by forcing their black employees to leave early whenever the then CEO was scheduled for an appearance and rejecting black models for not looking the "part".The CEO once again proved to be very controversial when he infamously said "It`s almost everything. That`s why we hire good-looking people in our stores.