Email response from Totes/Isotoner

Here's the response email I received from Totes/Isotoner's customer affairs department. I am not satisfied. They have a customer relations nightmare on their hands here and I hope they are more proactive and convincing in their defense. The Ohio court rulings seemed shaky at best, full of twisted logic. I wish we knew more of the facts of the case because now it sounds like she said/they said.

Dear Amy,

Thank you for your note and concerns regarding the Ohio Supreme Court Ruling regarding the termination of a temporary employee.

As a matter of policy, totes»ISOTONER is not able to provide specific
information surrounding the employment circumstances of any employee. What we can share is that based on the circumstances involved with this specific temporary employee, the totes»ISOTONER employment decision has been supported by the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the 12th District and the Ohio Supreme Court. And while we cannot specifically address the Ohio Supreme Court Ruling, we can share several of our workplace practices:

· totes»ISOTONER absolutely supports employees, whether full-time, part-time, or temporary, who are also nursing mothers.

· totes»ISOTONER does provide time for nursing mothers to pump their breast milk and many employees have taken advantage of this accommodation. In the case presented to the Supreme Court, we did provide this accommodation.

· totes»ISOTONER is a company committed to supporting our employees. Because females account for approximately 70% of our work force, we are very attuned to and supportive of the needs of working mothers.

Again, thank you for your note and expressing your views on this issue. We take great pride in our culture of being a family oriented company, and can only indicate there were other factors involved in this particular situation which led to the company’s decision in this case. We appreciate your having been a customer in the past and hope you will reconsider your decision in this regard going forward.

Sincerely,

Vickie Fightmaster
Human Resources Manager
totes»ISOTONER