Marc Jacobs' former no. 2 says president used company as personal piggy bank
By DAREH GREGORIAN
Posted: 5:41 PM, March 30, 2011
Add "pole dancing" to the list of job duties for fashion designer Marc Jacobs' employees.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Marc Jacobs International former no. 2 says President Robert Duffy treats the company as his personal piggy bank, employees as his personal playthings -- and one as his personal dancer.
Duffy, who's Jacobs' longtime business partner, "uses company funds for personal expenses and does not censor what he does or says," former chief operating officer Patrice Lataillade says in his suit, which charges Duffy with having created a "discriminatory environment" at the company.
"Examples of Duffy's conduct which created a hostile work environment include his displaying gay p*rn*gr*phy in the office and requiring employees to look at it; his production and dissemination of a book which includes photos of MJI staff in sexual positions or nude; [and] his requirement that an MJI store employee perform a pole dance for him," the suit says.
Lataillade said he stood up to Duffy's underlings, and was fired from his $1 million-a-year job in retaliation.
In a statement, the company blasted the allegations as "false," and that Lataillade was canned "for serious matters unrelated to the allegations contained in the complaint."
The suit says Lataillade went to work for MJI in as chief financial officer in 2002, and was promoted to COO in 2006.
During that time, "there have been sexual harassment cases threatened or brought against defendants based on Duffy's conduct. Because Duffy (correctly) believed that he would not be punished for his conduct, it grew increasingly worse," the suit says.
His conduct was so well-known, the filing says, that when the company's human resources department drew up a sexual harassment policy last year, they didn't actually disseminate it "because of a concern that it would anger Duffy," who co-founded the company with Jacobs.
Lataillade said he "complained about Duffy's behavior and requested, on numerous occasions, that Duffy's creation of a sexually charged workplace be stopped," but "nothing was done," the suit says.
Duffy's alleged victims also didn't have much success with their complaints, with the company lawyer telling a young female employee she needed a "thicker skin" and a male employee to "go home early and have a drink," the suit says.
"As Duffy's conduct escalated, so did Lataillade's complaints," and he was fired one week after he had an e-mail sent MJI and Louis Vuitton higher-ups "summarizing the legal situation and the hostile environment."
The suit says Lataillade was told he was being fired for cause, but the legal action doesn't say what that cause was.
He's seeking unspecified monetary damages discrimination, retaliation and his "mental anguish and humiliation."
In its statement, the company said, "MJI, LVMH Inc. and Robert Duffy will vigorously defend the case in court."
nypost.com
I can't even imagine the atmosphere at work
