Don't keep that leather label tag on the strap.

Bally Pays $200,000 to Settle Suit for Discrimination Against Taiwanese
American
ally North America Inc. will pay $200,000 (euro165,500) to a Tawainese
former manager to settle a lawsuit that claimed she was harassed and
fired from the luxury retailer because of her race, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
An investigation by the federal agency concluded that Yolanda
Wang's supervisor at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu ``derided'' her
ethnicity on a regular basis, calling her a ``sneaky Chinese woman,''
and saying she ran the store like a ``little Chinese grocery store.''
The supervisor, a white woman, also said Wang should be able to
work more than 70 hours per week because she is ``young and Chinese,''
according to the commission.
Wang, who is from Taiwan, also was issued seven reprimands in one
day, some for events that were weeks old, the agency said.
Wang joined the company, whose parent company is based in
Switzerland, as an assistant store manager in November 2000, promoted to
manager a few months later and was fired in March 2002.
Bally denied the allegations in the lawsuit but agreed to the
settlement, which includes training all of its employees in Hawaii and
adopting a zero–tolerance policy for discrimination and retaliation.
A request for additional comment from the company's headquarters
in New York was not immediately answered.

``Even in Hawaii, there's still an issue with ethnic
discriminatory comments like these,'' said Timothy Riera, director of
the federal commission's Honolulu office. ``Although we like to think of
Hawaii as being very diverse, a melting pot, sometimes you do get
situations in employment where there is this kind of conflict.''
He said the case highlights the importance of employers to
promptly investigate all complaints of discrimination to send a message
to employees that the company is committed to a fair and
discrimination–free workplace.
The lawsuit was filed in September by the federal agency on behalf
of Wang, who protested a report in her personnel file that accused her
of racial bias.
``Although she requested an investigation to clear her record, no
such action was taken to verify or disprove that accusation of bias,''
Riera said. ``Instead, we found that she became the target of
discrimination herself.''
William Tamayo, regional attorney for the employment commission's
office in San Francisco, which oversees Hawaii, said when an employer
``takes the extreme measure of terminating an employee for asserting her
rights, it's crucial for the EEOC to take action and send a message that
such retaliation will not be tolerated.''
Thu January 5, 2006 19:16 EST JAYMES SONG Associated Press Writer
HONOLULU (AP)