A Muslim cocktail waitress has won a 3000 pound ($6090) compensation payout for having to wear a figure-hugging red dress she said made her feel "like a prostitute".

But a claim by Fata Lemes for about 17,000 pounds in damages was dismissed as "manifestly absurd" by a British employment tribunal, which rejected her claim that she was sacked.

Lemes, 33, worked at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair, central London, for barely a week last year. When she started, female staff wore a loose-fitting uniform, but she was told this would change in summer.

The summer outfit turned out to be a tight-fitting red dress - which she refused to wear, saying it was "disgusting".

An employment tribunal panel led by a judge agreed with her, contrasting it with what male employees of the bar had to wear. "Plainly, it related to her sex. It was gender-specific," they said in their ruling.

"The respondents did not introduce a summer uniform for male waiting staff. Unlike the women, the men were not required to switch to brightly coloured, figure-hugging garb."

Forcing her to wear the dress if she wanted to continue working at the bar "violated her dignity", the panel decided, and created a "humiliating" environment.

The panel found: "Her perception was that wearing the dress would make her feel as if she was on show, as if she was being presented as one of the attractions which the Rocket Bar was offering its customers.

"In our view that perception was legitimate and not unreasonable. We are reinforced in this conclusion by the striking contrast between the dress and the dark, loose-fitting attire which would remain the men's uniform."

But they did not accept her view that she was sacked from the bar, and refused to uphold her claim for 17,000 pounds compensation, saying it was "manifestly absurd".

British newspapers had earlier on Monday published a picture from the social networking website Facebook showing Lemes -- a photographer who does bar work to supplement her income - in a revealing white top, smiling at the camera.

I can see why they upheld her claim, but the question is, why would a muslim be working in a bar in the first place?
I dare say that she is probably no more religious than me, but saw a chance for scamming a few quid on the grounds of her "cultural" sensibilities.

A business that my wife and I are part owners of, have a young muslim woman as a member of staff. She wears her hadith

Quote:


Agreed 100% mozza, she sounds like nothing but a scammer. But I think your claims that it's mostly an ethnic thing are just ridiculous. There's plenty of Aussies/Brits who do that kind of stuff also. In fact Western women were the ones who pioneered all this discrimination stuff based on sex, so the Muslim woman (who isn't much of a practising Muslim if she's working in a bar anyway) is more likely following Western trends rather than Islamic trends.

locutius,

Quote:


Sure she doesn't wear her hijab? The hadith is a collection of books, and books generally don't look that good when worn.

Calanen wrote on Jun 16^th, 2009 at 11:00am:



This is what worries me most.
And have no idea how this can be stopped in a democratic way.