July 24–Strict appearance policies for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa’s cocktail servers known as the “Borgata Babes” do not constitute sexual discrimination, a New Jersey court has ruled.
Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson has granted summary judgment in favor of the casino in case brought by 22 cocktail servers who claimed Borgata created a culture of harassment with its dress code for the servers, according to a decision on file at the Atlantic County Civil Courts Building.
The women involved in the claim disputed a weight policy prohibiting the servers from gaining more than 7 percent of their body weight after they were hired, among other provisions.
Johnson’s decision in a 24-page document filed July 18 focuses heavily on the hiring process the women endured in which, he says, it was clear that the women applied for positions that were meant to be part entertainer and part cocktail server. All of the women involved in the case later signed statements agreeing to the weight policy, which the court describes as lawful and reasonable.
“The Borgata Babe program has a sufficient level of trapping and adornments to render its participants akin to ‘sex objects’ to the Borgata’s patrons. Nevertheless, for the individual labeled a babe to become a sex object requires that person’s participation … ” Johnson wrote. “Plantiffs cannot shed the label babe; they embraced it when they went to work for the Borgata.”
Borgata opened in 2003 and has marketed itself as a Las Vegas-style casino. The Borgata Babes cocktail servers dress in cleavage-bearing bustiers and high heels.
More than 4,000 people applied to be Borgata Babes in the casino’s initial hiring process, according to court documents. During their auditions, candidates were given brochures describing the Borgata Babes as “part fashion model, part beverage server, part charming host and hostess. All impossibly lovely.”
“She moves toward you like a movie star, her smile melting the ice in your bourbon and water,” the brochure states. “You forget your own name. She kindly remembers it for you. You become the most important person in the room. And relax in the knowledge that there are no calories in eye candy.”
