Former employees of the Harrods department store in London have told the BBC that many black staff would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises. Staff would be warned of his impending arrival by security guards, after which there would be a “beeline of certain people, certain races”, who would leave the floor. Al Fayed featured in a BBC documentary in September, during which he was accused by over 20 women of sexual assault or rape. A new police investigation was launched in November in the wake of testimony from 90 additional alleged victims.
Several former Harrods employees described a culture of “paranoia, fear and bullying” at the store. A former security guard explained that staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel when Al Fayed visited before returning one he had departed. This group included black people and those who didn’t fit a certain look, while the staff who remained were “young, thin, blonde”. Former members of staff also made allegations of racism in relation to recruitment decisions, with one woman stating that she was told not to hire black people as “the customers wouldn’t like it”.
Harrods has previously responded to accusations against Al Fayed by saying that it was “utterly appalled” and that the organisation was “very different” from that owned by him. The store declined to respond to the latest accusations. During Al Fayed’s time as owner of Harrods, a number of employment tribunals were successfully brought against the company in relation to allegations of racial discrimination.
Al Fayed was previously accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995. He denied the allegations and initiated a libel suit which he later agreed to drop. However, he insisted that further evidence gathered by the magazine in preparation for a trial be locked away
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