Borgata Babes' Weight Can Get Them Fired, Judges Rule

The Borgata Babes, waitresses in corset-style dresses, stockings, and heels at the Atlantic City Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, will have to maintain their weight as required by their employer, three appeals judges ruled Thursday.

Twenty-one cocktail waitresses filed a discrimination lawsuit against the casino, claiming that the business' monitoring of how much weight they gained or lost was unlawful, but the Appellate Division didn't agree, the Press of Atlantic City reported.

However, the state appeals court decision was split, and the ruling said 11 waitresses could move forward in their lawsuit regarding how management enforced its personal appearance policies.

Those waitresses had claimed "sexual harassment hostile work environment discrimination" because of the enforcement, and the 57-page ruling said waitresses who fought the weight standard because of "documented medical conditions or post-pregnancy conditions" could continue to legally challenge them.

"This is a significant victory for Borgata," Joe Corbo, vice president and legal counsel for the casino, said in a statement. "We have long held that Borgata’s personal appearance policy is fair and reasonable. We are pleased that the three appellate court judges agreed with prior rulings that our policy is lawful and non-discriminatory to women. As the court noted in its ruling, Borgata’s policy was fully and openly disclosed to all costumed beverage servers, male and female, and all of the litigants voluntarily accepted this policy before they began working for us."

The Borgata Babes' lawsuit was previously found to be without merit by Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson, the Press said.

Fox Business reported that Borgata has fired two waitresses for failing to maintain their weight under an employment agreement that requires them to stay within 7 percent of their weight when they were hired. One gained too much weight, while the other lost too much.

"Sexual objectification has been institutionalized and is being allowed to stand," the women's attorney Deborah Mains told the Daily Mail. "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."

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