Atlantic City Flap-per

I listened with interest to one of our sister stations Tuesday as they discussed the latest developments in a story involving an Atlantic City casino and nine former cocktail waitresses. The women have hired high-powered feminist attorney Gloria Allred who yesterday filed a lawsuit in Atlantic County Superior Court against Resorts Casino Hotel.

For those of you who have not followed the story it is certainly not a first and won’t be the last although I’m sure that’s what Allred would like. Resorts was purchased by a new owner late last year whose goal was to re-brand what was Atlantic City’s first casino-hotel, opening in 1978. They are going with a theme inspired by the hit HBO miniseries “Boardwalk Empire” and as part of that cocktail waitresses will wear short, sexy flapper dresses. That’s where the problem started because a couple of months ago Resorts fired 15 women who did not fit the younger, slimmer, sexier image that the casino was trying to portray.

In the lawsuit filed yesterday it’s alleged that the older waitresses were forced to audition for their jobs by wearing the new costumes, some of which were the wrong size and had to pose for awkward and unflattering pictures. They also claim that they had to train the women who would replace them and once that was completed then they were given the pink slip. The nine longtime employees who are part of the suit claim they had exceptional job-performance ratings and are seeking back pay as well as damages.

To cut to the chase this is a rather simple case although with major ramifications.
The fired women include a grandmother in her late 50’s and others pretty close to that in age. I am sure when they started peddling drinks in the casino they were quite attractive if not stunning. In all honesty they were probably hired for their appearance and not their ability to carry a tray. Now like everything else time has caught up with them and while it is pretty cruel they no longer fit the image that Resorts and probably most other casinos would want. Right or wrong men want to look at younger and sexier cocktail waitresses, not grandmothers approaching 60.

Whether Resorts could have handled this in a better way is certainly up for debate. They insist the fired servers were offered other positions in the company and some accepted but the 9 represented by Ms. Allred are seeking a bigger pay day. Sounds to me like an out-of-court settlement somewhere down the road.