Abercrombie and Fitch, the retail company known for its trendy collegiate clothes and risqué catalog, has agreed to alter its largely white image by adding more blacks, Hispanics and Asians to its marketing materials. The decision comes in response to a nationwide race and sex discrimination lawsuit.
Mike Jeffries, chairman of the company, denied the company was discriminatory, but said the company would be accommodating to avoid further disputes, according to the New York Times.
The company, which has 700 stores and 22,000 employees nationwide, raked in $1.7 billion in sales last year.
The Abercrombie and Fitch website makes no reference to a hiring system based on physical features, stating employees must represent the brand to customers through having “an eye for quality and style.” Applicants must also have an appreciation for the Abercrombie and Fitch lifestyle, described as “cool, casual, classic and fun.” In addition, sales clerks must be “high energy” and possess “an interest in interacting with people — the ability to have fun.”
However, several minority plaintiffs sued the company in June 2003, complaining that when they applied for jobs, managers steered them away from sales positions to low-visibility jobs like stocking and cleaning up.
More recently, a federal judge in San Francisco approved a settlement Nov.16, 2004 that called for Abercrombie and Fitch to pay $40 million to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs.
The settlement required the company to hire 25 diversity recruiters and a vice president for diversity, noting it must increase diversity not just in hiring and promotions but also in its advertisements and catalogs, the New York Times reported.
The settlement also mandated the company stop relying on fraternities and sororities in its recruitment, as many Abercrombie and Fitch employees had reported specifically recruiting good-looking students in university Greek systems.
The company will now provide diversity training to all managers and provide bonuses for progress in diversity.
Lisa Beranek, a University of Wisconsin junior, worked at an Abercrombie and Fitch store as a high school student in Boulder, Colorado. She said the work environment, while not unpleasant, was lacking in diversity.
“It was all preppy white kids,” she said, adding she was not involved in the hiring process and did not know how managers selected employees.
Beranek added she had received compensation following an earlier lawsuit against Abercrombie. The legal action came when employees sued the company for not providing enough pay and for requiring a dress code that required the employees to shell out excessive amounts of personal money on company merchandise.
Darcy Dassel, a sophomore at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said she worked at Abercrombie and Fitch for two months but quit because she did not like the work environment.
“I got $5.50 an hour and had no chance for a raise,” she said. “The girls I worked with were all stuck-up.”
Dassel said there “definitely” was discrimination in the Abercrombie and Fitch hiring process.
“All the girls looked exactly alike,” she said. “Out of the people I interviewed with, I could kind of tell who was going to get hired.”
