A New Jersey woman says she was fired from her job after her manager told her to "tape her breasts" down, and now has filed suit against the company.
Claiming religious and sexual discrimination, former data entry worker Lauren Odes said that after two days with Native Intimates, she was humiliated.
For no other reason than being voluptuous, too.
A supervisor at the midtown Manhattan wholesale lingerie company told her the owners were not happy with her outfit, calling it too "distracting."
"When I first started working there, I asked what the dress code was, and was told to look around and see what everyone else was wearing," Odes said.
"So I did. The dress was very casual athletic wear to business attire."
Lauren Odes said the company owners are Orthodox Jews who were offended by her attire, and that the dispute ultimately cost her a job.
At a news conference announcing the lawsuit, with Gloria Allred (obviously) by her side, she said that at first she compromised.
She said she'd wear a gray T-shirt and black jeggings with rain boots to work, but that wasn't enough for the powers that be:
"When my supervisors suggested that I tape down my breasts, I asked 'Are you kidding me?' The supervisor said, 'Just cover up a little more.'"
The female supervisor then walked over to a closet, pulled out a bright red bathrobe decorated with pictures of guitars, and told Odes to put it on.
"She told me to sit at my desk and wear it all day. I felt completely humiliated," Odes said. "She put the bathrobe on me and tied the belt."
"I returned to my desk wearing it."
Her supervisor then gave her the option of to go out and buy a sweater that "went to her ankles" instead of wearing the bathrobe, she said.
After being ridiculed and made fun of by co-workers, Odes obliged.
"I sat in the bathroom for a while crying. I'd prefer to go out and buy a sweater rather than sit there in the bathrobe feeling humiliated," Odes said.
But while she was out shopping for the sweater, the 29-year-old got a phone call saying she'd been terminated, she said. Just like that.
Now, Odes, with the help of Allred, has filed suit against Native Intimates with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"The treatment was discriminatory, profoundly humiliating and unlawful," Allred said.
Odes, who said she is also Jewish, said no employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on employees.
"I do not feel an employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me when I'm working in a business that's not a synagogue, but sells things with hearts on the female genitals and boy shorts for women that say hot in the buttocks area," she said.
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