In July, a French rights group, Le Defenseur Des Droits, announced that it was going to investigate Abercrombie & Fitch for possible discrimination. The activist group alleged that Abercrombie & Fitch's "models" are actually salespeople, and that Abercrombie & Fitch's hiring and recruiting practices are discriminatory.
The head of activist group, Dominque Baudis said that the retailer seems "to base its recruitment methods on discriminatory criteria and particularly on physical appearance."
Leon Glenister, a London based attorney, stated "the reason the company's recruitment attracts so much interest is for moral
reasons rather than legal ones. But if a company says it
only wants to hire good-looking people, they are in dangerous water."
While it isn't illegal to hire an individual based on looks, this opens the door to many legal pitfalls. According to Michael Scutt, an employment solicitor at Excello Law told CNBC, "for example, if a
black person or older person is not hired because they are not 'attractive',
they could be more likely to bring a discrimination case against the company on
race or age grounds." Leon Glenister agreed with this statement. "In this case, the defendant can say it's justified because they have a business
image to protect, which would be quite interesting," Glenister added.
Abercrombie's CEO Mike Jeffries admitted in 2006 that it deliberately recruited attractive
staff for marketing reasons. "That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores," he said in the
interview. "Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and
we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other
than that."
It will be interesting to see how the retailer handles the investigation by the French activivist group, as well as the potential other investigations that may follow.
If you are the victim of discrimination in the workplace, contact Ambuter Law for your free case evaluation.
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