Muslim waitress demands £20K after being sacked over 'sexy dress'

LONDON: A Muslim cocktail waitress has sued the restaurant she was working at and demanded 20,000 pounds in damages, claiming that she was sacked because she refused to wear a 'sexy' red dress.

Fata Lemes, 33, has accused bosses of portraying an image of the waitresses being available for a "pick up" and says that they run the Rocket bar and restaurant "like a sex club".

Lemes said clients would pester her for sex even when she wore loose black clothes, and that she was given a new uniform a week after starting.

"It was clearly designed to be attractive to men sexually. I was concerned that clients would regard me as a prostitute," the Sun quoted her as saying.

She told the Central London Employment Tribunal that when she tried on the dress, she found it was "openly sexual".

"You might as well be naked. I was brought up a Muslim. I did not want men looking at my body," she said.

When Lemes, from Camden, North London, told the manager that she could not wear the dress, she was sacked and given a 24 hours' notice.

She has now filed a lawsuit against restaurant group Spring & Green for sexual harassment and sex discrimination, though the company denied all her claims and said she resigned voluntarily.

Lawyers have told the tribunal that there is no evidence to suggest that the bar was run like a sex club.

And managers have said that the dress was chosen by other staff, and even produced photos of waitress Amanda Bjursten modelling it in the bar in Mayfair, central London.

She said she was "completely comfortable" in the dress.

The tribunal verdict is due early in the New Year.