Disabled shop worker wins case

A student who worked part-time at the Saville Row branch of US store, Abercrombie & Fitch, has won an employment tribunal in which she said she was bullied out her job due to having a prosthetic arm. A tribunal ruled this week that she had been wrongfully dismissed and unlawfully harassed.

Abercrombie & Fitch was ordered to pay Miss Dean over £9,000 for injury to her feelings, loss of earnings and damages. However, the tribunal found that Miss Dean was not discriminated against because of her disability but had been unlawfully harassed for a reason relating to her disability.

Riam Dean, a law student, told the tribunal how she was forced to work out of view in a stockroom because she didn’t fit with the shop’s “look policy”.

Miss Dean asked to wear a long sleeve top under her polo shirt uniform to cover her arm but bosses said that she could wear a cardigan instead. However, she was then told afterwards that she couldn’t wear the cardigan because it was against the store’s look policy. In one incident, Miss Dean says she felt “taunted” when her manager said she could return from the stock room to the shop floor if she took the cardigan off.

David Cupps, General Counsel of Abercrombie & Fitch commented on the ruling: “We are pleased that the Tribunal found that A&F did not discriminate against Ms. Dean on grounds of her disability and also found that A&F provided Ms. Dean with the accommodation she requested.

"While the Tribunal did make a finding of failure to accommodate and harassment, that finding was based on the events of a single day - events which were not at all representative of Ms. Dean’s overall employment with A&F. We continue to believe that these events resulted from a misunderstanding that could have been avoided by better communication on the part of both parties.

“We were happy to employ Ms. Dean, and we have always been, and will continue to be, supportive of the rights of the disabled.”