THURSDAY, NOV 14, 2013 10:30 PM +0900
Prada, suicide and sexual harassment: A whistle-blower speaks out
Rina Bovrisse brings Salon behind the scenes at Prada: "They used to call outlets 'garbage bins for old ladies'”
JOSH EIDELSON
、プラダ元部長「セクハラ」裁判で敗訴
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Prada, suicide and sexual harassment: A whistle-blower speaks out
Rina Bovrisse brings Salon behind the scenes at Prada: "They used to call outlets 'garbage bins for old ladies'”
JOSH EIDELSON
This spring the United Nations urged Japan to make workplace sexual harassment illegal, a move reportedly spurred by the four-year legal saga of Prada ex-employee Rina Bovrisse, who was routed in Tokyo court and now faces a countersuit for alleged defamation. In a recent interview, Bovrisse told Salon that when she challenged “pure discrimination,” including regulation of women’s weight and teeth, Prada responded by purging her from the company and accusing her of mental illness. “They thought I could be eliminated from society,” charged Bovrisse.
Asked about Bovrisse’s allegations, a Prada spokesperson emailed Salon, “In our opinion, this is just an instrumentalization, that is to say an attempt to use highly ethical issues for mere personal interests. Prada is now aiming to establish before the Tokyo District Court that the initiatives promoted by Ms. Bovrisse in the media and through public demonstrations were a defamation against Prada, causing damage to Prada.”
[Before, in New York] I always had female bosses. “Devil Wears Prada” is exactly what I went through ― maybe a little worse, but that’s how it was. So it’s not like I couldn’t take any level of craziness. But what I witnessed in Japan was pure discrimination, harassment ― something that I’d never seen.
I had interviews at competitive brands, and they were European and American, and they [had] no shame to tell me that “you’re 35 years old … you’re out of the category.” It wasn’t only domestic [Japanese] people, it was also foreigners. Their standards changed …
Another thing is that my assistant reported that she got sexually harassed by someone from Milan who was relocated to Tokyo, who was on a business trip with her and tried to get into her room at the hotel. And she was terrified, because he was a higher position than her, from Milan, but she still wanted to work for Prada so she was scared to report it …
[Another woman,] she doesn’t have hair due to stress and depression from work. And I said, “Why?” And she said, “Well, I’ve been harassed … but I’m not worth, I don’t have anywhere to go.” She’s 40 years old, and every time the boss was angry, he would call her into the office and yell at her for an hour and throw a mobile phone at her face. So I said, “That’s physical abuse.” And she said, “Yes, but I’m not worth anything …”
I saw that any woman who has worked for Prada in the stores for five, 10, 15 years, salesperson – the H.R. officer visits the store and says, “We don’t like her teeth or body shape.” Then they send a demotion or transfer to the most remote area, and then if you refuse you have to give in your resignation … Ladies were just over 30 years old and they were considered old … They were normally demoted to and transferred to some countryside outlet from top No. 1 salesperson as manager, to entry-level salesperson at an outlet. They used to call outlets “garbage bins for old ladies.”
I finally raised the petition [issues] after my three-month training period, because I became full-time … And I was said to have mental illness, sent home –
I know the global COO of Prada … He was from New York, and he grew up in New York, in Paris, and he would know where I was coming from. I just emailed him … He called me when I was in Guam, and he said [that the manager] “said he didn’t even talk about that, he talked to you about presentation.”
I said [employees] are being forced to buy expensive, $1,000 Prada products. They can’t pay their bills and their rent and they are afraid they will lose their jobs … The boss from Milan told me to send him all the evidence and no one would get fired. A few days later, I was called in the office by the Japan CEO and he said I was fired.
What was motivating you at this point in the conversation? What was driving you?
First they fire me. Then they accuse me of unexcused absence. Then they say it’s my imagination, and I go back to work ― but there is no work. Then they say they are giving me demotion transfer, but without any paperwork …
I had an interview with the Japan Times … I thought it was going to be a tiny little article in the back … who reads Japan Times? And it’s in English … [But] it was cover story … I was all over the place … and they completely changed the story, to I was fired for being ugly. I was fired for reporting sexual harassment, and people thought I was fired for being ugly … And people started using my Facebook picture … All the TV reporters came from every town, and I couldn’t go anywhere.
The case was dismissed … The one law [the judge] used was defamation, saying that because I had said something in public it was legitimate to fire me at criminal level. And sexual harassment and discrimination were acceptable for fashion industry.
After the ruling, for two weeks I was unconscious, I didn’t go out, and I had to ask someone to take my son, because he still had to go to school, and it was all over the TV news in Japan …
The fashion industry is one of the worst industries for work conditions, human rights and all this – they’ll ignore everything. Japan – there are no rights. From the outside it looks beautiful, but people don’t speak up for their rights. There is no education about human rights or women’s rights …
Because Prada countersued me, I still had to be here for hearings … Spent my son’s precious 2 [years old] to 6 years here because of the case, radiated with Fukushima.
I really don’t understand this society. It’s four years that I’ve been dealing with this, but I still don’t understand how women can live here [in Japan] … In India, women speak for their rights, women’s issues. In Pakistan, women speak for their rights. In Japan, no one speaks. They want clean, quiet silence, and just be polite, smiles all the time, but they’re depressed inside.
So I understood at the end of the lawsuit, this is not Prada Japan ― this is Miuccia Prada’s policies
、プラダ元部長「セクハラ」裁判で敗訴
プラダジャパンの元部長・ボブリース里奈さん(38)は26日、白とピンクのワンピースに白のニット、全身シャネルの装いでカメラの前に姿を現した。
・
その判決は、ボブリースさんの敗訴。
判決で、東京地裁は「原告は、自己の立場を有利にするために、一部メディアにセクハラ情報を提供した。解雇は有効」としたうえで、上司の体形にかかる発言については、「配慮に欠ける面がある」としたものの、「原告がシャネルの製品を身に着けて出勤したことを契機に始まっていることなどから、慰謝料を払うほどの精神的損害は認められない」などとして、その請求を全面的に退けた。
1： サーバル(新疆ウイグル自治区)：2012/10/26(金) 16:24:26.85 ID:stc4uhJ40
http://www.ytv.co.jp/press/mainnews/TI20091351.html
プラダ元女性部長敗訴 セクハラ抗議で解雇
高級ブランド「プラダ」の日本法人に勤めていた女性が、上司からセクハラを受け、解雇されたと主張して会社側に損害賠償などを求めていた裁判で、東京地裁は２６日、女性側の訴えを退けた。
この裁判は、「プラダジャパン」の元統括部長・ボヴリース里奈さん（３８）が０９年、上司から「プラダルックにしろ」「痩せろ」「君の醜さが恥ずかしい」などと言われて抗議したところ、解雇されたと主張して、会社に損害賠償などを求めていたもの。
東京地裁は２６日、「上司が『醜い』と発言したとは認められない」として、解雇は有効と判断した。また、「別ブランドの製品を身につけて出勤していたことを注意するのは社会通念上、相当」で、「体形に関する発言は配慮を欠いた面があるが、慰謝料を認めるほどではない」として、ボヴリースさん側の訴えを退けた。(10/26 15:20)
プラダジャパンの元部長の女性が、外見を指摘されたうえ一方的に解雇されたとして、解雇の無効と慰謝料を 求める訴えを東京地裁に起こした。
2009年9月に人事部長から、社長の言葉として「髪(形)を変えろ、プラダルックにしろ、やせろ」などと言われた という、プラダジャパンの元部長・ボブリース里奈さん(36)。
ボブリース里奈さんは「最後にあった強制販売はバッグって指定だったんですけども、もう10～30万円台ぐらい なので、決してお安いものではないです」と話した。
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