Casino Company Harrah's Entertainment Exonerated of Sex Discrimination Charges
16 April 2006
The San Fransisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that Harrah's Entertainment's requirement that female bartenders apply makeup at its casino facilities does not amount to sex discrimination. The casino's attorneys reportedly said that the recent ruling against Darlene Jespersen, a lesbian bartender who was fired for refusing to wear makeup during work hours, upheld employers' right to adopt certain grooming standards.
Jespersen was dismissed in 2000, right after Harrah's Reno casino, where she was employed as a bartender for twenty years, instituted a dress code. In addition to hairstyle and nail-polish requirements, it required female employees to wear makeup, such as powder, mascara, and lipstick. Jespersen refused to comply with the new policy.
The appellate court ruled that the casino company's policy was as burdensome and time-consuming on its female employees as on its male ones. The court's ruling was partly based on the fact that while men were required to cut their hair, women were not, and that while women had to apply makeup, men were prohibited to do so. According to Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder, Harrah's appearance policy did not intend to present the company's female employees as sex objects.
Source: Authorized Online Casinos News Staff
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