Story on discrimination claims for hiring retail employees for good-looking appearance, inspired by Abercrombie case
New York Times Story by Steven Greenhouse quotes Donna Harper, supervisory attorney in the EEOC’s St. Louis office, among others, in discussing possible race, gender, national origin, age, and disability claims that may arise when companies use “branding” and their perceptions of customer preferences in selection of employees.
Check this site for summary by plaintiff’s law firm of claims against Abercrombie.
It has long been a basic principle of discrimination law that customer preferences are no defense. It could hardly have been otherwise, given that discrimination laws arose in response to blatant racial discrimination in places where companies could accurately predict their customers would not want minority employees serving them (at least in certain capacities). If customer preference would have been a defense when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it would have shielded vast amounts of racial discrimination.
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