Nike Was Prosecuted By Female Employees For Sex Discrimination

The latest round of allegations came from the company's former female employee Cecily Schmidt (Cecily Schmidt).

In November 5th, the Portland Business Journal reported that in October this year, the footwear developer sued the Labor Department of Oregon, accusing Nike of causing racial and gender discrimination, hostile working conditions, and violation of the family and medical leave laws, etc., in November 5th.

Cecily Schmidt, an African American, joined Nike in 2012 and was sacked in February 2018.

Her accusations against Nike and its 5 employees revealed numerous details.

The atmosphere of sexual harassment has lasted for a long time and has not been able to solve this problem systematically and effectively.

A spokesman for the labor department said the complaint will be dealt with publicly and the two sides are under investigation.

A spokesman for Nike said in a reply to Footwear News's e-mail that she would not comment, and said that Nike is committed to creating a culture of respectability.

It is reported that the indictment has disclosed many details.

Schmidt pointed out that a male colleague showed women wearing exposed music videos while working on the demo. The lyrics were discriminatory against women.

The man often spoke sexually discriminatory remarks, including sexual hints and attacks on women's jokes, and "chat up" women during their business trip and cheat on their wives.

In addition, Schmidt said her salary is lower than that of male employees with equal qualifications, and promotion opportunities are less.

Compared with male employees, her performance standards vary.

Schmidt's boss once criticized her for being "not lively, friendly and not suitable for work", and asked him to carry out a performance plan to solve the above problems.

Until Schmidt was about to leave her maternity leave, she was told that her performance had been "significantly improved" without the need to continue performance plans.

Four months later, when Schmidt returned to work, she said she was in a "gender based" hostile working environment and received some unwarranted warnings.

In February 6th of this year, Schmidt

The employee relations department of the company raises gender related complaints and hostile working environment related complaints.

Three days later, in February 9th, she was told that she would be dismissed in February 16th.

Schmidt claims that he is actively involved in Nike.

(Nike Black Employee Network), which was recently awarded the title of "the person of the year", was shocked by the dismissal.

At present, many details of the complaint remain to be investigated and confirmed.

In fact, this is the third official allegation faced by Nike after the outbreak of personnel disturbances.

In August of this year, two former Nike women employees sued the company for gender discrimination and violated the equal pay for equal work act.

Kelly Cahill and Sarah Johnston claimed that due to gender reasons, the company paid less remuneration for the same work than the male colleagues and ignored women in the promotion of personnel.

At present, about five female employees have joined the lawsuit.

In September this year, three shareholders sued Nike founder Phil Nate, CEO Mark Parker and Nike brand former president Trevor Edwards, and the board of directors of the company, accusing them of "deliberately ignoring the harm caused by hostile working environment, which could further damage the company's interests and financial situation".

The storm began in 2017, and some Nike women employees launched a private investigation into the management of the company to collect allegations about the lack of fair pay for men and women.

At the beginning of this year, when the report was handed over to Mark Parker, Nike launched a large internal investigation, and at least 11 executives were dismissed.

With the Wall Street journal disclosing the company's sex discrimination, improper personnel management and the prevalence of patriarchal culture, Nike human resources director Monique Matheson openly acknowledged flaws in personnel management, especially in recruiting and promoting more women and minorities.

In May this year, at the staff meeting, Mark Parker publicly apologized for internal problems.

Not long after, the company announced a pay rise of over 7000 employees and improved pay benefits programs.

But from the latest situation, this storm has not subsided.