Is it wrong for a bar to require waitresses to be thin? Or can a certain body-size be a bona fide occupational requirement? The court in this case apparently put a lot of emphasis on the voluntary nature of the employment contract. Interestingly enough, while the court upheld the very specific right of the casino to forbid weight gain, the court also implicitly held that the way in which this right was exercised mattered. In Atlantic City, you can apparently require cocktail waitresses to stay thin, but you can’t bully them into it. >>>
LINK: Court Recognizes the Borgata’s Right to Punish Waitresses for Gaining Weight (by Clint Rainey for Grub Street)
A New Jersey appeals court has ended, at least for now, the epic legal saga between Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino and its cocktail waitresses. The “Borgata Babes,” as they’re known, first sued the casino in 2008 for gender discrimination, arguing it was illegal for managers to punish them for putting on weight. But the Appellate Division court threw the workers’ suit out yesterday by affirming most of the lower court’s controversial 2013 ruling.
Babes sign contracts that say if they gain more than 7 percent of their original body weight, they can face discipline….
What do you think?
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