Hooters Faces Discrimination Suit

WWJ Newsradio - Detroit

May 24, 2010

Roseville - Hooters is being served with a lawsuit by a former Detroit area employee who claims she was told to agree to lose weight or lose her job. Cassandra Smith said Hooters violated Michigan law when it placed her on 30-day weight probation earlier this month.

In a lawsuit filed in Macomb County Circuit Court on behalf Smith seeks damages in excess of $25,000 for lost wages and emotional distress.

The 20-year-old Smith is no longer employed at the Roseville Hooters after the management put Smith on probation in order to bring down her weight so she could better fit into her extra small Hooters' girl uniform.

Smith, at 5-foot eight, 132 and a half pounds, is well within the recommended weight to height ratio. Smith say she had, in fact, lost 12 and a half pounds since beginning her job with Hooters in 2008. "I believe that I look the best I've probably ever looked," Smith said. "I was completely shocked and caught off guard," she said.

Smith said that another fired Hooters girl also suffered great emotional distress. "It destroyed her self-esteem and I've seen her go through a lot of drugs because she felt so upset about herself and sick about herself," Smith says.

Mark Bernstein, a Farmington Hills attorney, and one of the attorneys representing Smith, said that on this case specific level, it raises the question of what a young woman must do to keep her job.

"Does a young woman have to choose between her health and her safety and her job?" he said.

Hooters' servers wear tank tops and tight shorts. Atlanta-based Hooters of America said it has not seen the lawsuit but insists it doesn't enforce a weight requirement.

© MMX WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.