Riam Dean is seeking up to 25,000 pounds ($41,000) in damages at an employment tribunal.
Dean, a 22-year-old law student at the University of London, told the tribunal she worked at Abercrombie’Abercrombie kidss store on London’s posh Saville Row and had been given permission to wear a sweater to cover her prosthetic arm.
After a few days Dean said she was told she was breaking the company’s “look policy” and was asked to work in the stockroom.
Dean said the company gave new employees a thick guidebook dictating everything from how employees should wear their hair to the length of their fingernails.
“I have worn a prosthetic arm since I was 3 years old,” she said. “It was part of me, not a cosmetic.”
Ruehl generated a pre-tax operating loss of about $58 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2009, including a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $22 million. In a statement, Mike Jeffries, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., said he was disappointed that the chain was closing.
"It has been a difficult decision to close Ruehl, a brand we continue to believe could have been successful in different circumstances," Jeffries said in a press release.
Wall Street criticized Abercrombie & Fitch for taking so long to close Ruehl. Abercrombie took a $51 million impairment charge related to Ruehl in the first quarter and will have to charge off an additional $65 million over the rest of the year. Same-store sales at Ruehl fell 33 percent in May alone.
The company also announced that it has amended its existing credit agreement to exclude from its calculation of the minimum coverage and maximum leverage ratios up to $61 million of the estimated $65 million of additional pre-tax charges associated with exiting Ruehl. Abercrombie ; Fitch also agreed to a reduction in the amount of available credit to $350 million from $450 million, an increase in the facility fee and borrowing costs, and a capital expenditure limit of $600 million for the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, including not more than $275 million for fiscal 2009.
