A federal judge in Georgia has denied Sephora’s motion to partially dismiss a former store manager’s discrimination and retaliation suit. Nixaliz Mestre alleges the beauty company fired her after she refused to use a hiring strategy that prioritized white applicants over applicants of color. The case is Mestre v. Sephora USA Inc., case number 1:24-cv-01908, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Sephora filed a partial motion to dismiss Mestre’s suit, claiming she failed to show that her opposition to the hiring strategy was based on her belief that it was discriminatory and illegal. The company claims it considered her failure to use the hiring strategy a performance failure and, therefore, neither discriminatory nor retaliatory.
However, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled that while Mestre ultimately will have to prove Sephora knew that she believed the practice to be discriminatory, her complaint contains enough detail and specificity to overcome a motion to dismiss. Mestre claims that Sephora gave her negative performance reviews despite the overwhelming success of the store she managed. The company also later placed her on a performance improvement plan because of her refusal to hire “all demographics” to work at the store. At the time, Mestre had nine white and 17 non-white employees.
Mestre alleged in her complaint that Sephora’s hiring strategy was to hire employees that met the demographic profile of each store’s customer base. Since Mestre managed the Alpharetta, GA, store, which has a 96% white clientele, Mestre was to hire white employees. When Mestre protested and adopted a merit-based hiring system, resulting in more employee diversity, a district manager began accompanying her during interviews and vetoing her hiring decisions.
In her suit, Mestre also claims that the company hired white workers when she applied for two training manager positions. A white employee’s complaint about “morale” issues in the store also led to a company investigation in 2022.
Ultimately, Sephora fired Mestre in May 2023 based on allegations that she failed to discipline an employee who violated company policy about pursuing shoplifters. However, Sephora typically coached managers on such issues in the past rather than firing them.
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