When Rina Bovrisse reported sexual harassment at Prada in Japan, she was not only fired, but found a local court grossly unsympathetic to her complaint: a judge, she claims, told her that "sexual harassment and discrimination were acceptable for [the] fashion industry." Bovrisse's fate has led the U.N. itself to urge Japan to make sexual harassment illegal, but Prada has other plans for her: it's suing her, claiming defamation.
In October 2012, Tokyo District Court Presiding Judge Reiko Morioka ruled in favor of Prada, deciding that the company’s demonstrated discrimination was acceptable for a luxury fashion label and that a well-compensated female employee should be able to withstand a certain level of harassment. The ruling flew in the face of Japanese and US law, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace and protects an employee’s right to report wrongful acts of corporations in public for social improvement.
Currently, Prada is countersuing the single mother to the tune of $780,000 for damaging the Prada brand by publicly accusing the company of discrimination. The irony of this countersuit is that Judge Morioka and Prada’s attorneys previously acknowledged that discrimination had in fact occurred.
This is what happens when a business is immune to any degree of media opprobrium or public disgust.
