NEW YORK (WABC) — A sex discrimination lawsuit has been filed against one of the best-known electronics stores in New York.
Four women accuse B&H Electronics of workplace promotions that were discriminatory.
Video – Women File Discrimination Suit Against B&H
NEW YORK (WABC) — A sex discrimination lawsuit has been filed against one of the best-known electronics stores in New York.
Four women accuse B&H Electronics of workplace promotions that were discriminatory.
The four women claim B&H refused to give them sales positions because of their gender. Three applied for jobs, but were turned down. The other currently works as a cashier.
“I felt hurt because I didn’t feel it was fair due to the fact that I’m a woman,” employee Nakisha Cushnie said.
In the lawsuit, Cushnie alledges, “I asked to work in sales and make more money, but was told that no women were allowed in sales for religious reasons.”
“It was very stressful,” she said. “I have a family to support. The salary needs to be a lot better. I was very upset to hear I couldn’t be a saleswoman.”
Cushnie has worked for B&H since April. She says she quickly realized working in sales would give her the best salary. She says it’s not easy raising her kids on $9 an hour as a cashier.
“Out of the 75 employees working in the store, not counting cashiers, there was a grand total of one woman,” attorney Richard Ancowitz said. “It’s kind of surprising that in this day and age, 2009, that we would see such blatant and obvious gender discrimination.”
The plaintiffs are asking for more than $7 million in damages.
Two years ago, B&H agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a discrimination case about Hispanics getting paid less than others, and the company failing to promote them or provide health benefits.
The New York institution employs 800 to 900 people, many of whom are observant Jews.
“I knew there’s no reason why I couldn’t work anywhere,” plaintiff Juana Lora said. “I wasn’t considering if they were Hasidic or not. I know I’m qualified to do a job, and I went in there to apply for a job.”
B&H attorney David Eisenberg told Eyewitness News he can’t comment on a case his office hasn’t seen.
aa
pay more to jewish women so you don`t have to hire from outside. the suits are expensive any way.
awacs
“The salary needs to be a lot better.”
Translation: the world owes me a living. Pay up!
hmm
Anything for a dime… Women at Band H do have different level positions- just not on the floor. Is the US military any different?
J.T.V.S.
this is crazy im learning this in school (human resources)
Yuh gotta go
All the women were doing was listening when they said “Yuh gotta go to B & H.
In this climate of high unemplyment ”Yuh gotta watch what yuh say”
People are getting desperate.
millionares
“Two years ago, B&H agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a discrimination case about Hispanics getting paid less than others, and the company failing to promote them or provide health benefits.”
Sick sick sick.
This kind of advantage – never work again
wow
this is ridiculous!
chaim from b.h
you dont like it work some where els
thay will not get a dime
Anonymous
aa – That is discriminatory. If the issue was turned around, you’d be saying it was anti-Semitism.
awacs – $9 is nothing. Could you raise your family on $9 /hr.? Could you even live by yourself on $9? No.
There’s no reason why a woman can’t do sales if she’s qualified.
Sometimes the narrow-minded comments here disgust me more than the news does, especially when there’s a system of privilege involved.
Oh Gosh
Gosh! They just want to make money an easy way.. they should not be given a penny! B&H has the right to hire who ever they want. They do have plenty of religious men there, so according to religious point of view they have a good reason!
Re-read the end of Tanya, kapital 1!!!!!
B”H
It occurs to me that many customers of the store are frum men, who might be reluctant to do business with saleswomen who might be helping them with items requiring touch, such as headphones, blueberries, even cell phones, certainly cameras, etc.
For this reason, it makes sense that most of the sales help be men, and that a few women can be there for the female customers who prefer to deal with a female salesperson. So if there are fewer females, there’s going to be more competition; more women will be rejected for the fewer jobs.
Also, the goyishe female sensibilities, dress, etc. are also going to be perhaps objectionable in a store that, again, has a large frum male clientele. It is not unreasonable for a store like B&H to prefer that its few female salespeople be eidel, tznius, speak Hebrew/Yiddish (at least as second languages), etc.
This suit is a big greedy money grab, not an attempt to elevate the civil rights of goyishe women!
Anonymous
Oh Gosh – Using your reasoning, perhaps women should just be banned from the store altogether. Heck! Anywhere there are religious men, women shouldn’t go! That would solve everything, right?
B&H is a store, not a shul.
Religion is no excuse for a qualified human being to not have opportunity for a better living. If we’re going to use the logic from “Oh Gosh”, then we might as well let the Taliban rule.
B&H (and every company) should be fair, offer training, use sales metrics in performance reviews and have a dress code for all salespeople. If they leveled the field, they wouldn’t have lawsuits and they would have a much better defense.
Anonymous is confused
B“H
Dear ”Anonymous“ —
And I suppose that if a white redneck guy wants to work at a beauty parlor designed to serve the hair care needs of black women, they should be required to hire him, regardless of whether he has a clue of how to serve their specialized clientele.
And certainly, if a lady Episcopalian priest wants to teach sofrus at Yeshiva University, then by all means, they’d better be ready to include her on that specialized faculty, regardless of the fact that there may be a few people more qualified and appropriate.
For sure, those Amish restaurants in Florida had better hire the former ”Miss Zimbabwe“ (bathing suit and all) as their hostess. After all, she’s got the right!
But what you forget is that, with rights, come responsibilities, to serve the needs of the employer.
If someone else is more qualified to fulfill those responsibilities — i.e., at B & H, the applicant speaks Yiddish and Hebrew — well, maybe he (or she) has the right to that job, over the person who doesn’t speak those languages. You don’t have to be running a shul, to benefit from those language skills.
Don’t tell someone what ”their reasoning“ is — you ain’t inside their head! And eidelkeit and tznius is more than just a ”dress code“.
If a goy truly is fluent in Yiddish and Hebrew, and has the most years of relevant prior experience needed for the job, then by all means, he or she should get the job.
But these ladies suing B & H are not likely to hold a candle to the folks they hire as salespeople. We’re in a recession, with lots of unemployed people out there, R”L. This also means that employers can pick THE best qualified person for the job.
You are confusing “equal opportunity” with “affirmative action”. The last I heard, B & H is not required to run a crash course for goyishe ladies, just to carry out “affirmative action”. They are only required to provide all applicants of equal qualifications, an equal opportunity to compete for the job.
Hate/Love
Woman were looked down upon while working there. The didn’t have their own bathroom. They had to use the customers bathroom. They didn’t have a lunchroom. They had to eat outside because if you ate with the men they made you feel as if you were eating really smelly food in their presence! There was a strict dresscode for women. They were expected to look professional while some of the sales guys were wearing t-shirts and jeans. I love B&H but I knew they were going down sooner or later! I don’t think she deserves all that money because she didn’t experience some of the things we did as a older female workers there. They did improve alot but you can’t change what was said!
..
sorry, i dont blame them.
I am half their age, and i earn double that.
PAY UP.
To Anonymous Is Confused
First of all, religious institutions, like Yeshiva University (at least REITS) are explicitly allowed to discriminate based on religion. YU does not have to hire Catholic priests anymore than a Catholic school has to hire Rabbis. Second of all, any sort of consideration to gender has to have a realistic connection to the job. A women’s clothing store need not hire men as there is a necessary connection between the employee’s gender and the job. Neither gender nor religion have any specific connection to photographic or computer equipment. Just as they cannot decide to only sell photographic or computer equipment to frum Jews (ala Jim Crow) they cannot decide to only hire male frum Jews. Fair or not, that is the law. If you don’t like the law, lobby Congress and/or the NY Legislature. The phrase that comes to mind is dinah d’malchusa dinah.
awacs
“awacs – $9 is nothing. Could you raise your family on $9 /hr.? Could you even live by yourself on $9? No. ”
Apparently, a lot of people do. Minimum wage is less than that, you know. My point was not that they are overpaid, underpaid or well paid but that they have an ATTITUDE that the world owes them something. In reality, the world owes them nothing. This reality drives them crazy. Oh, well. We’re kind of getting there:
“Obama will pay my gas and my mortgage”: http://www.youtube.com/watc…