Store Known to Discriminate Gets Caught Up in Religious Discrimination [e101]

Nasir and Matt kick off the next 100 episodes by discussing the religious discrimination lawsuit involving Abercrombie. They also answer, "The retailer argues in its brief that job applicants should not be allowed “to remain silent and to assume that the employer recognizes the religious motivations behind their fashion decisions.” Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: Welcome to our podcast where we cover business in the news and answer some of your business legal questions that you, the listener, can send in to ask@legallysoundsmartbusiness.com. This is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And this is Matt Staub. NASIR: Returning to our Episode 101 after our big 100. That was fun. I miss San Diego already. I already left. MATT: Yeah, you should. It’s nice here today. It’s probably not as nice where you’re at. NASIR: It’s terrible here. It’s like I’m in a swamp. MATT: It is much hotter here than normal. So… NASIR: Wow. That sucks. MATT: It’s probably still hotter where you’re at, but that’s fine. NASIR: So, what do we have today to launch our next hundred episodes? More football? MATT: More football? No. I mean, we talked about this earlier in the week – you and I, off podcast – how we basically could do a football story – an NFL story – every single episode, just the way things have shaped up. We haven’t even gotten to – I think I mentioned this before – there’s always something in college football that pops up at some point during the season so you know there’s going to be something big that we’re going to be able to discuss then as well. So, I don’t think we have any football lined up for this whole week. We’ll see. But what do we have? Abercrombie. So, this is a clothing store, apparel store, though I know of that because I long, long ago shopped there but I haven’t shopped there in at least three weeks. NASIR: What’s funny is I never shop there and I felt like I was missing something because all the cool kids were wearing that and I never… I don’t think I have one shirt or anything from them. I feel missed out. MATT: Well, maybe I’ll get you one. I didn’t even know they were even still around. If you go to the mall, you can tell who they are because it's the store that’s pumping out very loud music and it's like just dumped bottles of cologne on the ground because it’s very strong. NASIR: Exactly, yeah. MATT: It’s pretty weird. NASIR: I was going to say pumped out cologne outside. Yeah, you walk by and you smell really nice afterwards. MATT: Like most of the stories we deal with businesses, it’s usually some sort of employment issue and that's exactly the case here. This is dealing in Oklahoma and someone who had applied to a job at a kids’ store of Abercrombie, and I don’t know if that really makes a difference but it's a little bit tricky because she basically is claiming that she wasn’t given this position for religious reason s and Abercrombie's stance is that, well, you have to specifically ask for the special – I don’t want to say special treatment. NASIR: Accommodation. MATT: Accommodation, yes, that's the word. NASIR: I've been paying attention to this story quite a bit and here's what I believe are undisputed facts – or if they’re not undisputed, at least what’s alleged – is that, okay, Abercrombie a Fitch, they have a specific dress code policy. It doesn’t really matter what it is thoroughly but one specific thing that they have is you're not supposed to wear any kind of head gear or hats or anything like that. And so, this particular woman who's interviewing wears a head scarf over her hair and she wore it at the interview and, even previously, she had asked her friends who work there. It’s like, "Yeah, I know somebody that used to wear a Yarmulke who work there so I’m sure yours is fine, too." And so, she went there and one thing it has to be is she can’t wear any black. None of the employees can wear any black. They have to wear white or other colors. And so, she happened to be wearing a black one that day an...

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