Popular Vancouver-based clothing chain Aritzia has launched an investigation after a former store manager publicly called out the company for how she says she was treated as an employee.
Karissa Lewis, 27, who is Black, worked at Artizia’s Yorkdale location in the Toronto area for five months.
Lewis said she raised her concerns with the manager that had been training her: “She was kind of giving me the run around and saying, ‘Oh this is normal.' ” Lewis said. Aritzia’s post read in part: “We’re using our platform as a call to action – to speak up, to listen, to live our neighbours, to learn from our neighbours, to think critically, to come together and do what’s right.”
In response to Lewis’ concerns over her cashier shifts, lack of manager shifts, and that she was asked to vacuum the store, an Aritzia spokesperson added: June Francis, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, told CTV News people who have a had similar experiences as Lewis have been individually raising these types of complaints to companies and organizations for years, often without adequate responses, and that the anti-racism movement has finally created an opportunity.
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