Posts Tagged ‘ Discrimination ’

Hooters Asst Regional Manager Needs Free Gym Membership

May 19th, 2010. By AbiK

Cassie Smith, a waitress at Hooters in Roseville, Michigan—for two years now—was apparently called in for a review and basically told that she needs to take some weight off. Ok, let’s face it, Hooters is all about the eye candy. And I guess they want to get on the “wellness” bandwagon and help out a pudgy (apparently their assessment of Cassie, not mine) gal by offering her a free gym membership—and giving her what sounds like your run-of-the-mill HR-is-now-involved 30-60 day timeframe to slim down.

I’m not sure how Hooters monitors progress on this front—do they have weigh-ins? or is it all based on visual cues? Will Cassie be “ok” when she’s able to get into size XXS vs. the size XS Hooters uniform she wears now? And I wonder what business metrics—like customer retention, revenue increase vs prior month—those kind of measures—will be monitored and considered in direct relation to Cassie shedding those pounds? I muse and I digress…forgive me.

You can see more about this case—what’s basically a weight discrimination case—on the video above. But what I love is the double-standard. Take a look at the picture of this guy at the right, pulled from a WDIV tv (Detroit) report—he’s the Assistant Regional Manager for the Hooters where Cassie works. Now, I don’t like to point fingers or be the pot calling the kettle black, but…I’m hoping Hooters has offered him a nice little gym membership and that he’s taken them up on the offer.

The other interesting thing about this is the Hooters’ company line about image. We’ve now heard from two “head office” Hooters folks: Alexis Aleshire, PR Manager, and Mike McNeil, VP Marketing. They both defend (a given) the company’s stance on image and appearance by pointing to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and the Radio City Rockettes. Ok, again there is more eye candy. But at least those gals have to DO something—as in something physical. As in they probably should be in decent shape in order to merely perform their jobs. I know, I know—there’s still a “looks” component. But I’m hard-pressed to come up with a correlation—aside from sex appeal—between the cheerleaders and Rockettes who work out, practice and perform together, and the Hooters waitresses who show up for their shift.

Closing thought…if men only like women of a certain mold, who’s frequenting those big and beautiful dating sites? And what—they’re not showing up at Hooters every now and then?

Tags: Cassie Smith, Discrimination, Hooters
Posted in Employment | 1 Comment »

Hey Hollister: What about Cross-Dressers?

May 12th, 2010. By AbiK

So American Eagle Outfitters has “agreed” to get rid of a rule they had that banned male employees from showing up to work in women’s clothes, and to be fair, women employees from showing up in men’s clothes.

For American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), the issue arose out of a complaint filed by Make the Road New York with NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office that stated there was a “pattern of discrimination against transgender job hunters.”

According to the NY Daily News, a probe into the situation revealed that, indeed, there was such a pattern.

Of course, a spokeswoman from AEO has issued a statement indicating that “AEO is not admitting to the findings”.

Meanwhile, AEO has also agreed to train its staff on transgender issues such as how to refer to a transgender employee—is he a she or she a he? I’m not sure how one crafts the lingo on that in the company handbook other than to simply follow the wishes of the transgender employee. Bathroom assignments I guess are another issue, and one I’m not tackling here. None the less, it’ll now be addressed in AEO’s training.

But it begs the question, what about retailers like Hollister—who recently came under fire for allegedly dismissing an employee for another form of dress: a hijab. This isn’t a judgement statement here, but you’d have to agree that a head scarf is perhaps a little less visually in the raise-an-eyebrow range for most customers than a gentleman in hose and heels. I’m exaggerating here, but I’ve certainly come across a wide variability among cross-dressing styles.

So would a qualified gent in hose and heels get a job at Hollister?

Tags: American Eagle Outfitters, Discrimination, Hollister
Posted in Employment | 5 Comments »

Medical Marijuana Catch-22: You’re Fired

March 24th, 2010. By AbiK

How in hell do the fourteen states where it’s legal—yes, LEGAL—to use marijuana for medical reasons have such a progressive law that, on the flip side, opens the door for employers to fire medical marijuana card-carrying employees who test positive for marijuana use?

According to a cnn.com article, Keith Stroup, who’s on the legal counsel team for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says he gets around “300 emails and phone calls a year from medical marijuana who have been fired or had job offers rescinded because of a failed drug test.” 

Stroup goes on to say, “Usually they talk about how they have lost their job and I tell them there’s not a thing they can do about it.”

True, in most at-will employment states an employee can be fired for any reason—except for those reasons that put the employee in a federally protected class—such as race, gender, and religion.

But medical marijuana-use employees are not a federally protected class. So employers pretty much Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Discrimination, Employment, Labor Law, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana
Posted in Discrimination, Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues, Employment | 8 Comments »