A former makeup artist for a Long Island M.A.C. store is suing the cosmetics giant for $6 million claiming her manager repeatedly groped her and made lewd remarks on the job.
In her Manhattan federal lawsuit, Sarah Bickram alleges that boss Alfredo Borbon made inappropriate and downright gross remarks about her.
In one instance he allegedly called her “clean” and then noted, “I bet your [private parts] smells like that too.” In another instance, the suit says, he told her, “Mmm I want to bang you on this floor right now.”
Borbon also grabbed her breasts in front of other employees at the Roosevelt Field Mall shop asking if they were real and grabbed her rear, breasts and legs on various occasions, the suit alleges.
Bickram, a 31-year-old wife and mother of one, brought up the harassment to other managers but they merely gave him verbal slaps on the wrist that didn’t stop the harassment, the court papers state.
“Sarah didn’t have a chance because there was an inherent knee jerk reaction to protect this guy because he was a friend [of the other managers],” her lawyer Brian Heller said.
In early 2017, “Bickram became so overwhelmed and filled with fear that she started having anxiety attacks at work,” the suit states adding that she ended up taking three months doctor recommended medical leave. She also went on anti-anxiety meds and started seeing a shrink.
In an attempt to “smear” Bikram’s reputation, Borbon lied to other employees that she was only complaining about him because the pair had a relationship that ended badly, she says.
Bickram, of Queens, came back from her leave on June 14 and quit a day later afraid that she would run into Borbon—who had been transferred to another location but was still close with managers at the mall store.
When Bickram asked one manager, Jeanine Vespucci, about seeing Borbon in the store Vespucci told Bickram to hide in a back room adding, “You’re just going to have to deal with it, honey,” the suit states.
“The whole thing was very devastating to me,” Bickram told The Post. “I would wake up and dread going to work.”
She now works in business development for a car company.
Heller said, “What really stands out in this case is how the company’s response really made Sarah be the victim all over again. There was this response that Sarah was the problem even though she had been the one who complained.”
A rep with Estee Lauder, the parent company for M.A.C., declined to comment citing the pending litigation.