A gender bias suit has been leveled against a New York institution.
A popular store on 34th Street has been charged with discrimination by several women who say the make-up of the store’s male dominated sales staff is no accident.
For camera and audio buffs, B&H Photo can be a Disneyland of delights but now the iconic New York electronics store is being sued for allegedly barring women from the far side of the sales counter.
Nakisha Cushnie is a B&H cashier who’s said her ambitions were blocked by the store’s unwritten promotion policy.
“It didn’t seem complicated. If guys can do it why can’t I do it?” Cushnie said.
But when she asked ownership if she could go into sales she was told, “That I couldn’t because I’m a woman. That simple. That’s it,” Cushnie said.
And that’s the crux of the $8 million lawsuit — that although women are employed as greeters or cashiers, the sales and management of the sprawling retail business is almost exclusively male. Two other women who’ve joined the suit said they applied for sales jobs and were passed over. Their lawyer said it’s a pattern.
“This is not a situation were women are being relegated to back-of-the-bus status. This is a situation where women aren’t even being allowed to ride the bus,” Richard Ancowitz said.
The company’s statement was a simple denial:
“B&H has a policy of not discriminating against employees and applicants which we strictly follow. We have just found out about these allegations and we take them very seriously and will investigate.”
B&H vice president Herschel Jacobowitz told CBS 2 HD he does employ women as sales people but he wouldn’t go on camera and we didn’t see any at the store Wednesday. Neither did any of the customers we spoke with.
“I’ve gone to the store many times and I’ve never seen any women,” said Saul Farash, adding when asked if he thinks there might be something to this discrimination suit, “There might be, there might be.”
CBS 2 HD was shown one likely lawsuit exhibit Wednesday — a B&H employee magazine — in which every picture inside is of a man.
This isn’t the first time B&H has been sued for its employment practices. Back in April, the store paid $4 million to Hispanic warehouse workers who claimed they were denied promotions.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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16 Responses
It was inevitable that sooner or later this would come up. But it’s clear, B&H has these restrictions for Halachic reasons: not mingling on the sales floor, edging past colleagues who have no physical contact at all with women who are not their wives/children/mother. Look at Hamodia: no women in the paper, for a valid reason.
They’ll beat this stupidity.
This wont go anywhere. Its always very hard to prove these type of cases. B & H does everything right +++++ – All over the internet they have such sterling reputations –
This is what you get under Obama. All these morons without jobs wake up int he morning and try to figure out who they can sue today.
Enough is enough with these frivulous lawsuits.
It’s amazing how only 7 or 8 woman in the whole country sue B&H but all the other 25 million woman in the USA have no problem with B&H.
Please, BestBubby’s half-right. Mingling? As busy as it is there, there’s no mingling more than at any other normal business, perhaps less. Don’t want accidental physical contact? Widen the aisles, or just ask politely to please move. And musicoutlet, don’t be a dumb, this has nothing to do with Obama, nor do the 150 million (25m? Huh?). Frankly, it’s surprising this didn’t happen earlier. It’s someone’s chumra vs. someone else’s parnassa; how’s that darchei shalom?
B&H gives good prices and great service; now they’ll have to follow dina malchusa in employment law, at least a little.
6, just because the law is you can’t discriminate based on the stupidity of the people doesn’t make it a ‘just’ law. the previous poster was 100% on the mark.
all these r’shoyim want to do is close down the business & nothing else – oh they want the $ they’ll get after their slip & fall lawyer takes his teruma.
personally, I wonder if its worth going to court & claiming its a religious issue of tznius. I could imagine the examples they could bring where they have women employed, i.e., in the offices as well as other non sales positions. that may make the case fun.
Since the law is that the ury has to be made of of one’s peers, I think the jury should be composed of people who are 100% shomer torah u’mitzvos, torah observant jews. Maybe even 12 chasidim!!!
I think we should get the Yerushlaymer yidden who protest at Intel, etc. to protest in NYC at all businesses that employ men and women in close proximity to each other. Where is the tznius brigade?
First Rubashkin & now B&H the liberal agenda of our government is going to tear down every successful jewish company who’s policies try to make a frum person comfortable in the workplace do not work for a society steeped in pritzus.
it serves them right you do not employ any women at all
I disagree with #1 this is not a stupidity. (This protects a frum jew from being fired for not working fri winter pm.
On the other hand #6 Avigdor comments is insulting; (now they’ll have to follow dina malchusa in employment law, at least a little.)
Then again saying the male pictures catolog proves a point, well here lays the central issue; where does the privilege of tznius begin?
However Saying “widen the aisles, and say excuse me” shows a lack of appreciation for someones higher standards and sensitivity to tznius.
( I wonder to what extent the arabs have zechusim of public tznius)
mt mehdi, for your information, my husband last year served on a jury consisting of a chosid, a couple of frum men and a frum woman. It was a lawsuit between a black pastor and his black first cousin!
I hear the rationale behind the B&H Photo policy. It is just about tzinius, period. This woman is an anti-semite who wants to take a bunch of chasidim out to dry and shake them down. That’s right, I said it, if anyone can not read it, I will repeat myself again; ANTI-SEMITISM!
Now, does it annoy enough people that I freely expressed my opinion on the Internet?
If it was a moslem store and required all to where
the hijab and a woman refuse to wear and was fired would a law suit follow OFCOURSE NOT out of fear for being political corrects: but Jews have no rights
DINA DEMALCHUSA DINA.
i used to work there and i wondered when they would face this problem. This is not the first time they are being sued for discrimination and last time its reported they paid out millions.
yes tzinius but not if that means you dont promote any women to sales.
Since men & women are not supposed to mingle unless related,is it not violating tzinus to let women into the store as customers? Another point, a friend of mine, a woman, has been working in the store without incident or complaint as a vendor’s rep for about three years. B&H cannot claim “religious exemption” because of this.
B&H has posted the EEOC policy regarding hiring/promoting. They apparently have violated Federal Law by refusing to promote.
If B&H is not guilty then all they need do is show their employee records. No one seems concerned that this is clearly a case where women are discriminated against. We have rights, if our rights are violated we are entitled to due process.
If B&H is not guilty all they need do is show their employee records. American women have rights to equal employment and equal pay. If our rights are being violated we will sue, and we will win.
B”H B&H is standing up for Kovod Shem Shmayim.