No makeup, no job
this may help you keep your job
Court backs firing of waitress without makeup
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Posted: 4:18 PM EST (2118 GMT)
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A female bartender who refused to wear makeup at a Reno, Nevada, casino was not unfairly dismissed from her job, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Darlene Jespersen, who had worked for nearly 20 years at a Harrah's Entertainment Inc casino bar in Reno, Nevada, objected to the company's revised policy that required female bartenders, but not men, to wear makeup.
A previously much-praised employee, Jespersen was fired in 2000 after the firm instituted a "Beverage Department Image Transformation" program and she sued, alleging sex discrimination.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Harrah's. All three judges are males appointed by Democratic presidents.
"We have previously held that grooming and appearance standards that apply differently to women and men do not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex," Judge Wallace Tashima wrote for the majority.
He cited the precedent of a 1974 case in which the court ruled that a company can require men to have short hair but allow long hair on women.
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Jen
Bullshit on Parade!
I will point out that Jen does wear makeup when she goes to work, and occasionally when we go to dinner. But then she likes to. No one is forcing her to.
The problem is that it's not a sex issue but a dress code issue. Where companies can require being clean shaven and no jewlery on men, they can require makeup on women. And if it doesn't pass muster in the 9th Circuit, well, it's pretty much not going to make it anywhere. No company is going to require men as part of a normal dress code t wear makeup. But they can limit mustaches and beards. Companies have a great deal of lattitude in enforcing dress codes, as Jen can tell you with her current employer.
Is it fair? Not really, but it isn't illegal.
posted by Steve @ 1:57:00 PM
