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Disabled Student sues Abercrombie & Fitch
A law student with a prosthetic arm has told an employment tribunal she “questioned her worth as a human being” after she was forced to work in the stockroom of US clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.
Riam Dean
Riam Dean, 22, who was born with her left forearm missing, said she was given permission to wear a cardigan to cover the join in her arm.
But she said she was later removed from the shop floor and made to work in the stockroom because the cardigan did not adhere to the strict dress code.
Miss Dean told the tribunal she felt “taunted” when her manager told her she could return to the shop floor of the firm’s flagship store on London’s Savile Row if she removed the cardigan.
She said: “I felt personally diminished, humiliated and could not argue a point I could never win.”
Miss Dean, who has just finished her final exams at Queen Mary, University of London, is seeking damages for disability discrimination at an employment tribunal in central London.
She told the hearing she would have stayed with the company until her law qualification was complete, had she not been “bullied” out of her job.
Miss Dean added that, when she left the company, she “wasn’t the same person”. “I didn’t want to socialise,” she said.
“If I did go outside the family home. I felt so self-conscious, I would cover up and wear long cardigans despite it being summer. I knew I would need another job, but I couldn’t face rejection all over again. I began to assume that my arm would always cause me such trouble. I was always prepared for children to be curious about my disability, but to be faced with adult bullying, no-one could have prepared me for such debasement.”
Abercrombie & Fitch has yet to respond to the allegations in the tribunal but on Tuesday night a spokeswoman for the company said Miss Dean’s portrayal of what occurred was “inaccurate”. She added: “Abercrombie & Fitch has a strong anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy and is committed to providing a supportive and dignified environment for all its employees.”
(Thanks to Steve McNeice for sending this article)
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