Posted on 04/09/2013 8:52:15 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
A former Hooters waitress has sued the restaurant chain in federal court, alleging she was pushed out of her job after brain surgery left her with buzz cut hair and a healing scar that made it too painful to wear a wig.
Sandra Lupo, 27, had worked as a waitress at a St. Peters, Mo., Hooters since April 2005 but took a leave from her job for a few weeks last summer to have a cranial mass removed.
Lupo had the support of her manager, who visited her in the hospital and suggested when she was ready to return to work that she wear a "chemo cap" or jewelry items "to distract from her lack of hair and the visibility of her cranial scar," court documents said.
~snip~
After her manager approached her again regarding a wig, Lupo said she borrowed one and tried to wear it at work. But it "caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound," according to court records.
Lupo said her manager then reduced her hours to the point where she was making so little income that she was forced to quit, which made her ineligible for unemployment benefits.
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
Does she have a legitimate complaint alleging she was discriminated against based on ADA laws?
Or is the company right in denying a scarred-up baldy to sling beer and chicken wings?
Or thirdly.... Who cares about her hair; does she still look hot in a Hooters uniform?
Oh my, Hooters treated the woman like a piece of meat? I expect much better out of a place named Hooters!
Or does she just need medical leave until she heals up and hairs over?
She paid her way through nursing school on the job, and is now a nurse.
She ought to be grateful. As the unfairness of life goes, this is just a speed bump.
Wear a wig? -- Seriously, if that's the big thing about the situation why throw away a perfectly good job, especially in this economy?
If she can’t do her job as defined by her employer and the reason is recuperation from surgery, then I’d think she’d be eligible for disability till her hair grows back. But is she so broke that a couple months off work is going to kill her? Actually, after brain surgery, probably yes.
“...Lupo told him “she did not have a wig and that she could not afford a wig, as they range in cost between several hundred and several thousands of dollars,”
She should have gone to Wig Depot...probably a better buy...
But it "caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound," according to court records.
Whatever happened to "The wig hurt her because of the scar"? Instead it has to be "extreme stress to her body".
I laughed the other day when I learned that the restaurant industry term for places like Hooters or Tilted Kilt is "breastaurants"!
“She should have gone to Wig Depot...probably a better buy...”
Why not just wear a loose fitting hat?
I think if she wasn’t capable of coming up to “appearance standards” that they could have found her alternate work while she was recovering. I mean, the restaurant industry has such a high personnel turnover rate that there had to be at least a temporary opening in other areas (such as kitchen or janitorial) of the operation.
FTA....
After her manager approached her again regarding a wig, Lupo said she borrowed one and tried to wear it at work. But it “caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound,” according to court records.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sounds like BS to me. If a wig caused that much “trauma”, then she had no business going back to work.
IMO.
That, too. A nice cowboy hat would set off the Hooters "uniform" nicely.
I'd say she has lawered-up. "extreme stress to her body".
Definately lawer gobble-de-gook.
Y yes. Yes I know lawyer is spelled with a y.
(sheesh)
I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 yrs ago and underwent chemo. I bought several wigs (Raquel Welch wigs) thinking I would wear them. Every single one of them gave me a headache plus even with a wig hat under them they felt yucky and scratchy on my head. Uncomfortable as heck. I opted for a soft nylon skull cap out of my brother’s motorcycle shop and a nice comfy black engineer’s hat I bought out of a cancer patient booklet. I did wear the wigs on short special occasions but couldn’t wait to get home and get them off.
If there was extra trauma to this ladies head I can definitely understand why she couldn’t wear a wig.
ADA is a whole other issue. So who knows.
But in general, the job of a waitress, especially at a place like Hooters, is not JUST to bring food to a table. They are supposed to be entertainment for the guests. And if the appearance makes them un-entertaining, well, there is no “right” to a job. Jobs are “at-will”, at least when the government isn’t sticking their nose into everything.
There’s a reason that there are no 50-year-old fat men working the pole at a strip club.
I missed that part, my daughter has at least 8 wigs, and she didn’t spend that much for any of them, or in total either.
They aren’t great wigs, but I’m sure they would do. I thought her problem was that the wig hurt her scar.
I had to wear a wig as part of my employment as a halloween haunt monster, and I have to shave because I get makeup. before that, I had to wear a mask. I didn’t particularly like the wig, didn’t like the mask, but you do what you have to.
“There’s a reason that there are no 50-year-old fat men working the pole at a strip club.”
Great. Thanks for ruining my post-retirement plans.
the company did try to be accomodating.
i can see where the wig may have caused pain over the healing scar.
they didn’t want to fire her but reduced her hours to kepp her an employee until things got better.
she made the decision to quit. i don’t think either side wanted this but the healing injury made it difficult to work. she thought it was too painful to keep working even reduced hours in a wig.
i would guess they could have given her an unpaid leave of absence but she still would have had to do something else for funds during that period of time. i am not sure if they offered it, given their trying to keep her it’s not farfetched they did offer her to return when her head scar had fully healed and not causing pain and she either had longer hair or could wear the wig without pain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.