Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG) is fighting back against sexual harassment claims made by some of its former employees.
A class action case including some 69,000 members has been brought against Signet Jewelers. The case is for claims of women receiving lower pay and less promotions than men. However, SIG points out that no members of this arbitration have filed legal claims of sexual harassment.
“Despite years of litigation, millions of pages of documentation and numerous depositions, claimants’ counsel have chosen not to file sexual harassment claims,” Signet Jewelers Ltd. said in a statement.” These allegations publicized by claimants’ counsel and reported in the media create a distorted, negative image of the company.”
Signet Jewelers Ltd.’s statement is in response to a story published by The Washington Post. The piece includes multiple testimonies from several different women that claim they have been the target of sexual abuse at SIG.
According to the original story on the case, there are hundreds of women that have been the targets of sexual harassment while working for Signet Jewelers Ltd. This includes Kay Jewelers, Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Sterling Jewelers retail locations.
Among the claims made in the Washington Post piece are those that point to Sterling Jewelers’ annual manager meetings as the worst place for women. Several women claim that this meeting would include high amounts of alcohol consumption, women in various states of undress and male executives soliciting female managers for sex.
SIG stock was up 2% as of Wednesday afternoon.
