Victoria Secret Lawsuit - Report Example

Introduction

The parent company of Victoria's Secret, L Brands Inc., was sued for records by the shareholder over its alleged "toxic culture of sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination" (Greenberg et al., 2020). The company was demanded to address claims of sexual harassment among its senior leaders after John Giarratano in Delaware filed the lawsuit. The complainant claimed that the sexual harassment culture exists at the L Brands Inc., owned Victoria's Secret, had failed to share records requested. When the report published by the New York Times on the bullying and harassment culture on the company, Giarratano requested to inspect the books of lingerie retailer to investigate any misconduct by Victoria's secret or its board (Bloomberg, 2020). Giarratano stated in his complaint that for years, Victoria's Secret had had a toxic culture of retaliation, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

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Setback

As per the CNBC, the claims were essential since the lingerie brand has tumbled out of favor with its consumers. The L Brands had undergone a certain setback when Sycamore Partners terminated a transaction agreement. The transaction-related purchasing an interest in the Victoria's Secret Beauty, Victoria's Secret Lingerie, and PINK. The ties of the ex LBrands Les Wexner to a convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, affected the loss of appeal. Plans by L Brands to close almost 250 Victoria's Secret Stores across Canada and the United States have been reported. Including the Pink brand, the company has a total of 1,091 stores in North America. The sales of Victoria Secret the same stores fell by 13% during the first quarter that ended in May 2020. The sales of L Brand's Retailer, Bath and Body Works surged by 41%. There was a 37% drop in L Brand's first-quarter net sales from $2.62 billion to $1.64 billion. In the recent after-hours session, the shares of L Brands traded at 17.72 dollars, recording a drop of 0.73%, closing the regular session at 17.85 dollars, which is a 2.51% lower (Repko &Elissa, 2020).

According to Chicago Sun times, Victoria's Secret executives have subjected several models to sexual harassment. Models have endured several accusations of inappropriate conduct (Gonzalez, 2020). For instance, accusations of misconduct were made against the president and chief marketing officer, Ed Razek of L Brands, making him step down. The allegations of misogyny detailed by the New York Times include harassment and bullying in the Lingerie organization culture and Victoria's Secret juggernaut of the fashion show. The allegations of inappropriate conduct that include sexual harassment, lewd comments, and bullying towards models such as Supermodel Bell Hadid, were made against Ed Razek, forcing him to step down. The report indicated that Razek's behavior was made aware to the founder and chief executive of L Brands, Leslie Wexner. As a result, ladies who reported the incidences lost their modeling job at Victoria's Secret.

Internal Records

Giarratano required a collection of internal records from the policies of L Brands concerning the disturbing allegations in the New York Times article. At first glance, the request of Giarratano appeared to have little to do with the ongoing media slaughter of Victoria's Secret lawsuit. He pursued scrutinizing possible misconduct after learning about the toxic culture of retaliation, discrimination, and sexual harassment that has afflicted the L Brand company for years. Roughly, 216 shares of L Brands stock are owned by Giarratano. He claims in a newly filed lawsuit that for more than three months, numerous document categories requested in demand have not been submitted by L Brands as agreed in March (Greenberg et al., 2020). Instead of providing the documents, L Brands decided to "abruptly change course." The company notified Gerriatano that it would separately table its reply to his requests for an unspecified time because of the challenges related to the coronavirus epidemic. Giarratano stated that L Brands has continuously ignored his communication request of being updated on the response to his demands. The company has since remained silent.

The internet was full of commentary regarding the exposure on the L Brands published in the New York Times. The lengthy title entitled "Angels in Hell" raised concerns, in some cases, downright rage (Pandey, 2020). It detailed the extensive mistreatment and provocation of workers and models in the company for a long time. It is through the widespread article that one shareholder at the company decided to take legal actions. At first, the official demand had no much to do with the media rage that had concurred with the upsetting emerging accusations regarding the Victoria's Secret since it was something of common action, books, and records request. This is an ordinary happening where the corporation shareholders seek accessibility to the information of a company for a useful purpose. It is commonly requested to collected some findings before the filing of a lawsuit. As such, Giarratano filled complain the Delaware Chancery Court to demand L Brands to generate the required documents. It was an effort made to know the point to which Leslie Wexner, the L Brands founder, knew and condoned the behavior that led to the growth of misogyny culture in Victoria's Secret. The behavior was referenced to the reports of abusive and hostile working environment allowed by the senior L Brands executive. The report had accused Leslie Wexner of ignoring rampant sexual harassment and other misconduct within the company.

Accusations

As per the report, Wexner had seemed to ignore the accusation that Razek was harassing the models and workers. Weslie seemed not to take any action regarding his former subordinate, the late sex criminal Jeffery Epstein (Griffith, 2020). Razek, a representative of Wexner, strenuously denied the allegations stating that the allegation report was categorically untrue, taken out of context, or misconstrued. He refused to give remarks on detailed lists of accusations. He, however, stated that he had been fortunate working with countless gifted professionals and world-class models, and he takes pronounced superiority in the mutual respect they shared amongst themselves. He had served the parent company for 27 years as the chief marketing officer and was responsible for auditioning the Victoria's Secret Angels. The civic disparagement of his disinclination to hire plus-sized models and transgender models made him resign during the last summer. According to the New York Times report, Wexner was heard demining women on multiple occasions while more outrageous behavior was linked to Razek.

According to the three people that were present at the yearly Victoria Secret fashion display when Supermodel Bella Hadid was being fitted, Rezek said, "forget the panties." He loudly became unsure whether the network of the television would permit Bella Hadid to stride down the runway with the impeccable breasts. Razek positioned his hand on the underwear covered crotch of another model at the same fitting. More than a dozen of allegations were filed over Razek. The accusations also include the incidences where he could request phone numbers of models in their bras and underwear at the casting. He also urged the models to sit on his lap. The alarming issue was how ingrained his behaviors were.

Any individual who tried to raise the alarm about the action could not only be ignored but also get punished. The abuse for the model had been accepted as a norm and could just be laughed off like brainwashing. According to the former public relations employee at Victoria Secret, Casey Crowe Taylor, she had observed firsthand misconduct of Razek. She revealed that she had presented several complaints to the human resources, but nothing was forthcoming, making her quit the company. The leadership dismissal of Victoria's Secret culture as usual and brainwashing was perhaps the most disturbing regarding the accusations raised to the public domain by the New York Times (TFL, 2020). This is an uncommon sort of culture that is troubling, whereby those who attempted to get concerned about the misconduct were ignored and punished by those in charge.

Discrimination

The New York Times revealed a culture of discrimination and the harassment and bullying culture in the company. Notably, the company was accused of refusing to hire transgender and plus-sized model with the fear that they are not representative of the public viewpoints or desires about women. This comes up despite a vivid trend about the inclusion of every individual in society. Besides, the accusations of Victoria's secret executives being associated with a prostitution ring and human trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein. It thus makes it easy to see the reason that makes Victoria's' Secret to face the public wrath for its toxic culture of sexual harassment over the years. The individuals in charge have been found to deny consistently negative culture, rather than admitting the problem and making efforts to correct it.

There is damage control to be done now that the New York Times conducted its expose on Victoria's Secret. There is no reason to believe that the accusations revealed by the interview are false. Rather than denying the claim or fix the blame to other people, the company has a lot of struggle to survive the changing times. It is hard to get a solution that can make viable attempts to solve the systematic issue that stems at the top of the organization. However, the company's leadership should aim at training itself as well as the employees. A full-scale education system is needed to deal with moral behavior at the workplace incorporated with the total overhaul in leadership. Victoria's Secret may not survive unless the combination of the two to be taken seriously about showing the credibility of the company in dealing with the issue. The company should strive to change the culture of its workplace and eliminate the old views from the general public. The association of the company with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender, did not help its image. According to the Luibrand Law Firm (2020), Epstein killed himself in prison before facing the sex trafficking trial. He posed as Victoria's model recruiter to lure minor girls into the occasion of sex.

Conclusion

Stories of alleged harmful practices can well be related to the L Brand workers who have faced sexual irritation at one of the nation's well-known companies. A lawsuit to review the records of the company was filed by the shareholder of L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret, to investigate the charges of a hostile work environment (Greenberg et al., 2020). The lawsuit at the company demands document records to explore the allegations of harassment, describing a work culture at Victoria's Secret as toxic with an arrangement of discrimination, retaliation, and erotic harassment. Compelling the company to disclose the document records is believed to be the only way of shading light on alleged abuses at workplaces as per the plaintiff filed suit. The suit alleges that the senior executives of the company are tolerated as well as contributing to the hostile working environment at the company.