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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A casino can regulate the weight of its cocktail waitresses, but a court should decide if managers erred in how they enforced those standards, an appeals panel ruled Thursday.

The state appeals court said the Borgata casino's personal appearance standards are lawful. But it also said part of a lawsuit brought by 21 servers should be returned to a lower court to determine if 11 of the women were subjected to a hostile work environment over the standards' enforcement.

The casino says it's pleased that the policy was upheld, noting it was disclosed and agreed to by all female and male "costumed beverage servers" when they were hired as "Borgata Babes."

"We have long held that Borgata's personal appearance policy is fair and reasonable," said Joe Corbo, the casino's vice president and legal counsel. "We are pleased that the three appellate court judges agreed with prior rulings that our policy is lawful and non-discriminatory to women."

The Borgata Babes are an integral part of the casino's brand and marketing. The servers wear tight fitting corsets, high heels and stockings. The casino even produces a Borgata Babes calendar that is one of its top-selling items each year.

An attorney for the servers said that the ruling is disappointing and frustrating.

"Sexual objectification has been institutionalized and is being allowed to stand," said attorney Deborah Mains. "It's difficult to separate the harassment claims that the court is recognizing from the overall theory that the working environment is hostile because of the personal appearance standards."

She said that servers have been subjected to comments from supervisors asking whether they're pregnant or just getting fat, and co-workers snorting like pigs at them.

The ruling overturned part of a 2013 lower court decision throwing out the lawsuit by former and current cocktail servers.

The casino says it has fired two Borgata Babes over the years for violating the policy, which prohibits servers from gaining or losing more than 7 percent of their body weight. One was fired for gaining too much weight; one was let go for losing too much. Neither of those servers was part of the recent lawsuit.

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Sparkly Spark

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as if the environment they have to work isn't bad enough, their managers are terrible too?

poor girls.

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The manager is a bit of an a**, but it's his business and his rules, and since they agreed to it there's not much they can do :

Also for the attorney who is angry with "sexual objectification" while it's true, Did he look at any commercial on TV in the past 20 years? Most of the merchandise is put next to a model looking girl, This isn't something new..(not justifying), If a business is trying to do the same with their servers well..you can't really stop them, best you can do is just avoid the assholes.

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Hmmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Sort of the same as I feel about Hooter's girls, I guess. I mean, if you choose to work in a job where you dress scantily and know you're going to be objectified, that's the job, isn't it?

I mean, I wouldn't work there, but that's my choice, right?

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I suspect this is more about both these women's age and their weight than just weight alone. There was a famous case about a guy who wanted to go to medical school but was denied because of his age (early thirties). The focus of the case however became his skin color and "reverse discrimination."

Many people getter fatter as they age. The 20 year old with the cute baby fat suddenly does not look so cute at age 30. Their guideline of 7% does not make sense, and seems to disguise the real issue of age. A 100 lb woman increasing to 108 is not a problem. Sometimes you like a thin woman, but sometimes you like those meaty thighs and a** you can sink your teeth into.

Americans continue to get fatter and lower their standards all the way around, but people still complain. I just read where the average weight of a woman today now exceeds the average weight of a man in 1960. Someone mentioned Hooters. I hear on other forums how those women are also ballooning up. They probably have to make those pants bigger. These places also try to sell the silly "family friendly." Fat Americans are just a sign of the declining times.

Casinos are horrible anyway. A lot of drunks and a lot of self-important security. Not to mention the obvious sucker's game of poor odds. High heels all day are also bad for your health. At least the restaurants with clantily scad women wear sneakers and look just as good as casino girls.

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I need more details. Weight regulation could be to make sure a waitress fits into the uniform.

Or it could be equal harassment, like in ballet.

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Shark Bacon
Hmmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Sort of the same as I feel about Hooter's girls, I guess. I mean, if you choose to work in a job where you dress scantily and know you're going to be objectified, that's the job, isn't it?

I mean, I wouldn't work there, but that's my choice, right?
Sometimes that's the only job a person has been able to get. It doesn't excuse this sort of gross discrimination.

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Kawaii Shoujo

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Some of those girls need to keep their job, it shouldn't be about how they should weigh 'such-and-such amount', and it might make them insecure... what happens if other businesses suddenly decide to do something similar?

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The Borgata Babes are an integral part of the casino's brand and marketing. The servers wear tight fitting corsets, high heels and stockings.


I'd enjoy seeing a man apply for this position and sue because he's either discriminated against or get hired and something like this will happen

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I'm assuming they signed a contract? If so, I don't know how these people thought they had a case.
7% of body weight is not an unreasonable number. That's not something you're gonna hit if you haven't made it to the gym in two weeks.
There's a lot of variance in weight, depending on body shape and muscle mass, but if you figure the range for females with a height of 5'5"- (which is the national average for women last time I checked) BMI calculator (I hate this thing personally, but just for the sake of numbers) says: 112 to 150.
That 112 seems super low, but whatever. 7% of that range is 7.84lbs, to 10.5lbs. That's like if an average person started randomly eating a big mac after work every day for a couple of months.
Can't say I'm a huge fan of body image regulations for a job, but at least its not 'you must stay starved looking or you're fired.' In all honesty, you should be trying to maintain that kind of weight range to stay healthy anyway.
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