Add “pole dancing” to the list of job duties for fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ employees.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Marc Jacobs International’s former No. 2 said President Robert Duffy treats the company as his personal piggy bank, employees as his personal playthings — and one as his personal dancer.
Duffy “uses company funds for personal expenses and does not censor what he does or says,” ex-Chief Operating Officer Patrice Lataillade said in his suit, which charges Duffy with having created a “discriminatory environment” at the company. Duffy is Marc Jacobs’ longtime business partner.
“Examples of Duffy’s conduct which created a hostile work environment include his displaying [of] gay pornography in the office and requiring employees to look at it; his production and dissemination of a book which included photos of MJI staff in sexual positions or nude; [and] his requirement that an MJI store employee perform a pole dance for him,” the suit said.
Lataillade said he stood up for Duffy’s underlings, and was fired from his $1 million-a-year job.
In a statement, the company blasted the allegations as “false,” and that Lataillade was canned “for serious matters unrelated to the allegations contained in the complaint.”
Lataillade went to work for MJI as chief financial officer in 2002, and was promoted to COO in 2006.
He is seeking unspecified monetary damages.