Polo Worker Challenges "Uniform" Policy

September 23, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Polo Ralph Lauren workers are suing their employer for a uniform policy that is eating up as much as a third of their paycheck.

According to the Associated Press, the complaint was filed by Toni Young for herself and other unnamed plaintiffs. It claims Ralph Lauren’s Polo retail stores require sales representatives to purchase and wear the retailer’s latest clothing.

The suit seeks to end the rule requiring employees to wear the company’s clothes and is seeking reimbursement of the money Young has spent on the garments.   The suit was filed last Wednesday in federal court.

Get more!  Sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters.

“Captive Customers”

Calling the employees “captive customers,” Young’s attorney Patrick Kitchin said his client has spent more than $35,000 over five years on Polo clothing to meet the retailer’s uniform requirement, according to the AP.  

Young, a sales associate with Polo’s San Francisco store since 1997, makes approximately $22,000 a year, according to the report.

Head Start?

To help new employees meet its wardrobe requirement, Polo offers sales associates a wage advancement program, letting employees purchase Polo clothing with salary advances to be repaid over six months. The company also offers a small employee discount, Mr. Kitchin said.

A spokeswoman for Polo Ralph Lauren in New York said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Mental Ailments Hit Armed Forces Personnel Hard

September 20, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Members or the US armed forces most frequently suffer from mental ailments such as depression and substance abuse, presenting one of the nation's largest employers with a unique challenge, according to new research.

Not only that, but a study by military researchers found that active-duty armed forces members during the 1990s were much more likely to leave the service altogether after mental health treatment than when they were physically ill, a Reuters story reported.

According to the study directed by Dr. Charles Hoge of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, mental conditions had become the second leading cause for hospitalization by 1995 as well as the fifth-leading cause of outpatient clinic visits in 1998-1999.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

Hoge’s group examined hospital visits for all military personnel between 1990 and 1999 and 1998 and 1999 outpatient clinic visits.

Patients’ specific ailments included (in order)

  • alcohol- and drug-related disorders
  • mood disorders such as major and mild depression
  • a group of conditions known as adjustment disorders. Adjustment disorders involve an inability to deal with stressful events that is severe enough to get in the way of work and life.

Home “Run”

Overall, the researchers found, mental health problems appeared much more likely than physical ills to affect service members’ ability to stay on the job. For example, nearly half of soldiers hospitalized for a mental disorder in 1996 left the service within six months. That compares with 12% of those hospitalized for physical conditions.

Studying the military, Hoge’s team notes, provides a “unique opportunity” because it is one of the healthiest US populations, is ethnically diverse and has equal access to healthcare.

The fact that mental disorders have such an impact in the military, they conclude, provides new evidence that mental illness is “common, disabling, and costly to society.”

«