Ethics is one of the most delicate aspects on a business environment.

Berfu Apaydin wrote a blog about Abercrombie and Fitch firing a Muslim employee when she refused to remove her hijab on the job. Firms usually face misunderstandings and problems in their workplace due to culture clashes. The fact that they fired one of their employees since she did not meet the “Looks” of the store, meant that they “violated the portion of the Civil Rights Act that bars religious discrimination”, according to the Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s article.

What effect will this have on the company? I personally think that this certainly damaged the reputation of the firm since not practising business ethics can lead to several problems. Such as this action would not attract their employees on wanting to work for their firm, therefore increasing recruitment costs.

The irony in this situation is that they company states a Look Policy to maintain the same culture and elegant environment in their stores and maintain their reputation and brand image. However, discriminating their employees because of their religion and cultural background only contradicts what they aim to achieve with the Look Policy. This is not the first time the company has been obliged to see court because of cultural discrimination, and I believe it will eventually repel religious customers from their company.

Berfu Apaydin’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/berfuapaydin/2013/09/12/5/

Sources:http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24051549/judge-abercrombie-fitch-violated-bias-laws-muslim-garb and http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-10/abercrombie-still-not-down-with-head-scarves-still-paying-for-it