Some Foxwoods bartenders must be 'physically attractive' and 'toned'
I was startled when I first read an employment job listing for new bartenders at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
The listing is for what are being called "bartender ambassadors" at the rechristened Fox Tower, the old MGM Grand at Foxwoods.
There are the usual job requirements in the listing: experience serving drinks, an "extensive understanding of spirits, wine, beer, garnishes, glassware and bartending techniques."
A little more into the realm of the unexpected is what must be the ambassador part of the job.
"Interacts and entertains guests in a cordial and gracious manner," the job listing says. "Poses for photographs with entertainers and guests upon request ... This is considered a high profile entertainment and marketing position."
I guess being a bartender ambassador in a 21st century casino is an evolution from the role of a classic bartender, who sops up customer stories while mopping up bar spills.
Bartender ambassadors, it seems, also need to be more fun, "enthusiastic, courteous, graceful and positive," not just confidants and good drink mixers.
They also — this is the most startling part — need to be fit and good looking.
The job listing says applicants are required to be "well groomed, toned body and physically attractive. Must be comfortable presenting this look while wearing the specified apparel."
This is similar to a trend in Las Vegas, in which casinos, leaving behind the family resort model, are marketing to a younger and hip, club-oriented customer base.
Casinos, getting close to the line of age discrimination by soliciting attractive beverage servers who must wear skimpy costumes, are calling the new employees "models" and "bevertainers."
So far, the courts seem to be with them.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled against a Vegas bartender who said a policy requiring her to wear makeup was sex discrimination. The court said it was the same as making men shave and cut their hair short.
In New Jersey, the state Supreme Court ruled that an Atlantic City casino can tell cocktail waitresses how much they can weigh.
The casino had fired two waitresses for violating a policy that prohibits servers from gaining or losing more than 7 percent of their body weight. Indeed, they weigh them regularly.
Lori Potter, a spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequots, the tribe that owns Foxwoods, said the bartender ambassador job requirements are "consistent with entertainment and casino industry standards."
A spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 371, which represents other bartenders at Foxwoods, but not those at Fox Tower, said the union would definitely challenge the new physical appearance rules if they were in place for the workers they represent.
"We have pretty good guidelines in our contract, with certain grooming standards," the union spokeswoman said. "But they have some new crazy stuff going on at Fox Tower."
A lawyer with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities said the appearance regulations for Fox Tower bartenders could violate state age discrimination laws.
But, the lawyer added, CHRO does not have jurisdiction over casino workers on the reservation, who would have to file complaints over the rules through the tribal court system.
In any case, it's a disturbing trend, widening the spectrum of jobs in which employers decide employees must be charming, good looking and thin.
That leaves a lot of us out of the running.
This is the opinion of David Collins
d.collins@theday.com
Twitter: @DavidCollinsct
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