The Washington Post reported Monday that arbitration documents show top managers at Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Kay Jewelers, both subsidiaries of Sterling Jewelers, led a corporate culture that fostered rampant sexual harassment and discrimination.
The Post said declarations filed in a class-action arbitration case from roughly 250 women and men claim female employees throughout the late 1990s and 2000s were routinely groped, demeaned and urged to sexually cater to their bosses to stay employed. Sterling disputes the allegations.
The arbitration was first filed in 2008 by women who accused Sterling of widespread gender discrimination. The class-action case is not yet resolved and now includes 69,000 women who are current and former employees of Sterling, which operates about 1,500 stores across the country.
Jared The Galleria of Jewelry operates a store on Gunbarrel Road near Hamilton Place Mall and Kay Jewelers operates stores in both Hamilton Place and Northgate Malls.
Most of the sworn statements were written years ago, but the employees' attorneys were only granted permission to release them publicly Sunday evening, the Post said.