Amanda Johnson, former L'Oréal marketing vice president, launches a lawsuit against the beauty company for racial discrimination and a toxic workplace environment. Details inside...
Amanda Johnson, former president of marketing for L'Oréal, is suing the beauty company for racial discrimination and being exposed to a toxic workplace that involved one exec watching pornography during a meeting.
After the former exec - a black woman - worked her butt off to the top of her game, she soon learned the company was toxic both at the workplace and outside of the workplace.
In the lawsuit she filed against the company, "Johnson quickly learned the ugly truth about the beauty giant, including witnessing a male executive openly watching pornography during a business meeting; sex-fueled parties at luxury European hotels during work trips; and racist hostility from the highest levels of management," an excerpt from the suit reads (via DailyMail).
She said she was fired after complaining about how she felt physically threatened by fellow Vice President Nicolas Krafft while in Europe. After the incident, she submitted an internal complaint against Krafft to her boss Dan Bethelmy-Rada. He told her he would look into the issue when she got back from vacation.
The issue never got addressed. Instead, she said within hours of her returning from vacay, she was fired over a conference call. She filed the lawsuit because she feels like her firing was in retaliation for filing the report against Krafft.
Also in the suit, Johnson described how her boss Rada "host drunken parties, showing favoritism toward young g** male employees, during business trips. One night in Rome, Johnson said Rada told her to 'go and flirt' with a group of young male employees and bring them to Rada's hotel room." Not only that, she alleged he watched porn openly during a business meeting.
The former L'Oréal exec is suing for all earnings she would have received, as well as compensatory and punitive damages. She also wants the company to "be permanently restrained from such workplace violations, that the company makes sure the effects of such violations do not continue to affect her employment opportunities."
L’Oréal addressed Johnson's claims in a statement to DailyMail:
"Amanda Johnson was fired for a pattern of unprofessional conduct that surfaced during her final months at the company, including what in our view was abusive and threatening behavior toward colleagues, serious lapses in judgment, and declining performance."
"After she was let go, Ms. Johnson raised some alarming allegations about her manager and certain co-workers through a lawyer."
"We took her allegations seriously and investigated them all with great care, as they had not been reported to Human Resources when she was with the company. We interviewed those at the company who would have been in a position to corroborate the alleged behaviors of her manager and co-workers, including those that Ms. Johnson identified as witnesses," the statement continued.
The company says that no one that they spoke with substantiated her claims while adding they are an equal opportunity employer.
Johnson’s lawyers popped back at the company:
“L’Oréal’s public response to Ms. Johnson’s complaint shows that the company holds underrepresented minorities to a different standard in all respects. L’Oréal again has wrongfully tried to discredit and punish the victim, an African-American woman, by choosing to accept a false version of events as told by a few white employees on its payroll.
L’Oréal’s so-called ‘investigation’ conducted ‘with great care’ did not even include asking Ms. Johnson for her side of the story.”
No surprise there.
We applaud her for speaking up and taking a stand against racism, patriarchy and sexism.
Photo: L’Oréal
