Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg
Sexual harassment has run rampant at a Coach store in NYC, according to a Charge of Discrimination filed recently by a former employee.
Tapestry, Inc. is a global fashion holding company headquartered in New York City. Its luxury brands include Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. Tapestry’s sexual harassment policy is illegal: it lacks the most important protections provided under NYS law, and for years Tapestry has been ignoring complaints by women that Luis Anzola, a Craftsman who has worked at Coach for three decades at their flagship store (“the pinnacle of the Coach experience”), has been sexually harassing them.
A young woman who started at Coach when she was just 23 years old, and member of Gen Z — the very demographic that Coach is desperate to attract — has filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It alleges that over a period of a year and a half, she made four separate complaints to the Store Manager, to Human Resources and finally to Coach’s District Manager, Brian Glass. She told them that Anzola was following her around, coming on to her, and touching her, and that he would spend up to a half hour at her workstation, staring at her and not working. Her first Store Manager agreed the behavior was unprofessional and unacceptable, and would not be tolerated. But although management assured her that it would stop, it never did.
Anzola’s staring, come-ons and invasion of her physical space made her fear for her safety. She experienced panic attacks. After nearly a year and a half, in desperation, she reached out by email to Coach’s District Manager, Brian Glass, explaining some of her concerns and spoke with him on May 14, 2024. She asked to be scheduled on different days from Anzola.
As alleged in her Charge, Glass was dismissive and condescending during their call. He responded by asking Complainant if she would be open to stepping down from her position as Craftsman and moving to a different role in the store. She had worked hard to be offered the position of Craftsman. Complainant explained she should not have to lose her job to escape Anzola’s sexual harassment. Glass responded that Anzola was a “specialist” and could not work in any other role in the store, so if Complainant was unwilling to work with Anzola, he wasn’t sure what other solution there was. He repeatedly pressed Complainant to agree to step down from her position. He also offered to mediate a “sit down” with Anzola to “work things out,” as though that were a proper response to a complaint of physical sexual harassment, or that she should find a way to live with it.
In a reply three days after she sent Glass an email recounting in detail the options he had offered her, none of which would allow her to keep her job without further sexual harassment, he did not deny that he was forcing her to work with her harasser or give up her position. Instead, he stated that “We have reviewed this information and addressed it as needed. We now consider this matter closed however, please let us know if you have any future concerns.We will continue to schedule you as normally agreed upon. If you decide you would like to be assigned to a different area of the store or a different floor, kindly let us know and we can discuss this.”
If he conducted any investigation, he did not even interview her direct manager who had witnessed the harassment and had herself been sexually harassed by Anzola. Knowing she would be forced to work with her harasser, and that Coach’s management was unwilling to curb his sexual harassment, she was forced to quit.
This is Luis Anzola
This is Brian Glass:
As he explains in his Sworn Statement, another employee witnessed Mr. Anzola frequently sexually harassing the Complainant, as well as other female coworkers. His statement describes how Mr. Anzola would unnecessarily touch female employees, pulling them in for long hugs, and putting his hand on their back when speaking with them. He recalled one female coworker describing him as “handsy.” After the Complainant made her first complaint, the store manager at the time informed the Witness that because Mr. Anzola had been with the company for such a long time, she would not be able to “do much” about his inappropriate behavior. This former Coach employee also confirmed Mr. Anzola often behaved flirtatiously with female customers. He asked customers whether they were married, told them that they were beautiful, and stood so close to them that customers took a step back, away from Mr. Anzola.
The Witness also experienced sexual harassment during his time at Coach, from a male coworker who frequently made sexual innuendos, jokes, and comments about his body. He showed the Witness explicit sexual content on his phone, and once in a “Boudoir” magazine, which he handed out to the Witness and other coworkers, containing pictures of naked men. When the Witness reported the harassment to store management, he was told to let them know if it happened again. It happened several times after that, and each time the only response from management was to let them know if it happened again. After reporting the harassment, he noticed that management started accusing him of being a bad employee, and stealing sales from other sales associates, which he had never been accused of prior to his complaint. Eventually he resigned from Coach due to feeling ostracized from his coworkers and management.
If you are a current or former Coach employee or customer who was harassed by Anzola, or made a complaint of discrimination or harassment to Glass, we would like to hear from you. You may fill out the contact form, email attorney@friedmanhouldingllp.com or call 212-308-4338.