MIDTOWN — A Japanese sales clerk at Seiko's Madison Avenue store wants $70 million from her employer — after her boss told her to skip work one day to avoid angering another executive's mother, who hates Japanese women, according to a recent lawsuit.
Kaoru Parker, 52, who still works at the store, says that she was told to stay home a few days before Thanksgiving last year because Etsuko Hattori, the aunt and adoptive mother of the Seiko Corporation's CEO Shinji Hattori, was coming to the store that day and "had a significant problem with Japanese women," according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Parker added that her boss, Takashi Aoki, the vice president of the watchmaker's U.S. branch, warned her that other Japanese women had been fired after Hattori visited company's boutiques in Japan.
Aoki warned that Hattori — who owns 9 percent of the company's stock and is the second largest shareholder — was a "mean, horrible, very difficult, prejudiced, racist and rude person," according to the lawsuit.
He added that if Hattori saw her at the flagship store at 510 Madison Ave near 53rd Street during her Nov. 22 visit, she would probably demand her firing, according to the lawsuit.
Parker asked, "'am I going to have to hide every time this woman comes into New York?' and he said, 'yes, in effect'," Parker's lawyer, Christopher Brennan, said.
Parker complied with her boss' request and stayed home from work that day, according to the lawsuit.
While she still works at the boutique, she has been effectively marginalized by her supervisors, according to the complaint.
Parker was born in Japan but has lived in New York City for 20 years, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesman for the Seiko Corporation of America denied Parker's allegations.
"The events described by Ms. Parker are at odds with the facts as we know them," he said. "Seiko is committed to diversity and we have anti-discrimination policies in place to support all of our employees, including Ms. Parker. We expect legal process will show that her claims are without merit."
