UK: Waitress fired for not wearing revealing dress

UK: Waitress fired for not wearing revealing dress


A Muslim cocktail waitress has claimed she was sacked for refusing to wear a 'sexually revealing' red dress for work.


Fata Lemes said she was pestered for sex by customers at Mayfair's Rocket bar and restaurant.


Miss Lemes, 33, alleged bosses ran Rocket 'like a sex club' and allowed clients to think waitresses 'could be treated as prostitutes'.


The strawberry blonde told a tribunal that on only her second shift two guests told her they were looking for a blonde 'for one or more nights'.


Miss Lemes, of Camden, initially wore loose-fitting black clothes, but a week into the job she was ordered to wear a tight bright red dress that had a plunging neckline and was open at the back.


She tried on the outfit and found it was 'physically revealing and openly sexual'. She said it made her look like a sex club hostess.


Miss Lemes told Central London Employment Tribunal: 'It was indecent. If you put this dress on, you might as well be naked. Everything finishes in the middle at the chest. It is open at the front and back. I did not want men looking at my body.


'I was brought up a Muslim, and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes.'


She refused to wear it and claims she was immediately fired.


Miss Lemes, a Bosnian Muslim, is suing restaurant group Spring&Greene, which owns the Rocket chain, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination.


She is claiming £20,000 for injury to feelings and lost earnings. The firm denies her claims.


(more)


Source: Daily Mail (English)

4 comments:

Joachim Martillo said...

It hardly seems a Muslim issue even if the plaintiff is Muslim

Esther said...

Joachim Martillo,

I would agree, except that the waitress in question doesn't agree with you.

FreeSpeech said...

Nuns don't work there, do they?

Joachim Martillo said...

Lemmes was trying to apologize for her discomfort with suggestive clothing.

She may be naive and believe that someone brought up as a non-Muslim would have been able to overcome her inhibition.

Anyway, as the British anti-discrimination system work, including issues of religious freedom make winning a lawsuit more likely.