A former head of the estate jewelry
Frank Gehry Fish toggle bracelet at Tiffany & Company was awarded $365,000 by the New York State Division of Human Rights, for she charged she had been sexually harassed by two superiors at the store and then dismissed when she complained.
Lawrence Wizman, a division spokesman, told $300,000 of the award was for
Tiffany 1837 Toggle bracelet anguish, the largest such award ever given by the division in a sexual harassment case. The other $65,000 was for back pay and interest in the case, which dates to the early 1980's.
The ruling also requires Tiffany, the Fifth Avenue jeweler, to provide staff training on sexual harassment and to post the decision in a prominent place in the company's offices.
In a statement, Tiffany said it would appeal the ruling. It also accused the division of "inexcusable delay" for waiting 10 years before holding any hearings in the case and doing so only after the two managers had died. The statement also denied that the dismissal of the complainant, Paula
Tiffany Cushion Two-row bracelet, was "based on discriminatory motives."
Mrs. Smith, of Chappaqua, N.Y., charged that her
Bead bracelet superior, Raymond Potterat, sexually humiliated and harassed her shortly after she created her new department in 1982. She testified that another Tiffany's employee, Keith Hall, who was later promoted over her, subjected her to similar harassment, saying she was "too aggressive to be a female" and that she "had hormonal problems."
The case caused a bad influence to
at that time.
