America
Indian-American executive of Zara sued for discrimination
New York, June 5
An Indian-American country
manager of the famous Spanish fashion retail brand Zara has been sued by
a former employee for discrimination and claimed over $40 million in
damages, local media reported.
Ian Jack Miller, a former general
counsel of Zara, has filed a discrimination lawsuit in a New York court
against the retailer's US country manager Dilip Patel and its former
chief executive officer Moises Costas Rodriguez, claiming he was fired
in March because he is "Jewish, American, and gay", Spanish news agency
Efe reported.
Patel is the country manager for Zara USA and
works at Zara’s Manhattan office while Rodriguez is a former CEO of Zara
USA and the current director of expansion for North and South America.
The
lawsuit alleged that Patel had a strong personal connection to the
company’s founder and as a “result of this personal connection, he
“engaged in discriminatory and harassing conduct with impunityâ€.
"Miller
is seeking damages totalling over $40 million for a hostile work
environment, pay discrimination, and discriminatory and retaliatory
termination," said a spokesman for the plaintiff's law firm.
When
Zara USA's top executives learned that Miller was Jewish, he was shut
out of meetings, annual increases to his salary and bonus dropped
sharply, and ultimately he was "unceremoniously" fired after seven years
of service, the lawsuit further added.
In a statement, Zara USA
said the accusations by its former employee were "shocking" and that it
would vigorously defend itself in court.
Patel was earlier working with Zara in Britain.
The
brand faced similar accusations most recently when last year the
company was forced to issue an apology in response to an uproar over a
T-shirt it produced that resembled a Nazi concentration camp uniform.