NEW YORK: A former Forever 21 employee is taking the retail superstore to court for negligence and invasion of privacy after discovering that a video of her using the workplace bathroom has been shared on “multiple pornographic website platforms,” according to court documents.
On November 29, a former employee known only as Jane Doe filed the complaint in New York federal court, claiming a hidden camera was placed in the single employee restroom at the Forever 21 store in Providence Place Mall in Providence, R.I.
Doe, who was a resident of New York at the time, worked at the Providence retail outlet through the spring and summer of 2011 while studying at Providence College, court documents say.
The surreptitious video footage apparently came to Doe’s attention on Dec. 9, 2016, after it surfaced on porn sites, she claims.
In court papers, Doe slammed the Los Angeles-based fast fashion giant on multiple counts of negligence, claiming that “extreme emotional damages” from the incident should be valued at $2 million or more. She believes the store is at fault as it “did not equip the employee locker room with any security system/security features to capture or keep a record of non-store employees and/or other unauthorized persons entering into the area designated as the employee locker room of the employee restroom.”
Further, Forever 21’s heedlessness directly violated Rhode Island’s right to privacy laws, she claims.
News of the lawsuit comes just days after a man in Washington State was accused of videotaping a mother and her 12-year-old daughter as they tried on clothes at a Forever 21 location in Olympia.
Speaking to Fox News, Forever 21 said, “Per our company policy, we are unable to comment on pending litigation, however, we want to make it clear that Forever 21 takes the privacy of our team members extremely seriously. We have zero tolerance for any type of inappropriate behaviour, and we are committed to making Forever 21 a safe space for all employees, without exception,” a company spokesperson said.”
“We have been actively investigating this matter, which has involved law enforcement, our legal team, and national investigation teams. We are committed to our employees and will continue to search out those responsible for this heinous act,” they added.