May 13, 2009

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EEOC Sues Strip Club for Firing 56-Year-Old Waitress. Awesome.

In the early days, Current Employment focused much of its attention on a stream of bizarre employment lawsuits and news stories that we’d constantly stumble across.  (See, e.g., here, here and here.)

In fact, one of the chief inspirations for this blog was Gary Skoning‘s annual “Wacky Employment Cases” reports published in the National Law Journal.

For months, though, we’ve been busy with important legislation and constant economic changes that required seriousness and professionalism. That, and we had a complete lack of content.  I  can’t remember the last time a wacky story crossed my desk, and I was honestly starting to worry.

Then the ABA Journal drops a bomb like this:

The federal agency in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination laws has taken up the cause of a Texas strip club waitress allegedly illegally fired due to her age.

Some stories just write themselves.

According to the Houston Chronicle story cited by the Journal, 56-year-old Mary Brassi had worked for AHD Houston, which owned 5 area strip clubs (an impressive amount for any city), since 1993.  She was earning near six figures waiting tables at a club called Cover Girls.  She was popular with the customers.  She sold a lot of drinks.  But for all her success, according to the EEOC, she got called “old” by her bosses, and teased about menopause and Alzheimer’s.  Then the club started bringing in “younger women” and giving them the prime shifts.

And then in 2006, they let her go.  Just like that.  Imagine – a 15-year veteran of the Houston live adult entertainment community, tossed out into the blaring sun and uncomfortable gravel parking lot like a best man who got too “handsy”.  Wondering if she’d get to serve $13 bottles of beer to distracted drunk guys with expense accounts ever again.

Refusing to go down quietly, Brassi brought her case to the EEOC and the agency investigated.  Last week, they filed suit on her behalf.   And this, of course, is the moral of the story: it doesn’t matter who you are, or what your job is; you can always go to the EEOC for help.  And it doesn’t matter what sort of business you’re in; if you employ people, the EEOC can always come knocking.  That’s their job, after all.

Although, if recent events are any indication, the EEOC may be superseded by karma this time around.   According to the Chronicle, Brassi (now 59) is waiting tables for a competitor.

As for Cover Girls?  Burned to the ground.  In 2007.