Hooters Succeeds with BFOQ Defense In the business of restaurants, there isn’t many individuals who have not been to a Hooter’s franchise at least once. It can be argued that Hooters isn’t known for their food but instead the individuals who are serving the food. When Hooters opened back in 1983, six business men named the famous franchise for two reasons: first their iconic owl hooting and second for the scantily dressed female servers with large breasts or as Chevy Chase coined “hooters”. However, the female only servers rule has brought with it discrimination lawsuits. Most notable is the case of “Savino Latuga vs. Hooters”, in which Latuga filed a complaint against the business claiming the business was in violation of the Civil Rights …show more content…
The complaint against Hooter’s is simplistic, in that they are a restaurant that serves food and drinks to patrons. It can be as easily done by a man as it could by a women. The legal rule adopted by the case of Wilson vs. Southwest Airlines, is that a business must take into account if BFOQ is permissible when determining if sex discrimination is allowable (O’Donoghue, 2012). In the case of Southwest Airlines, it was not permissible as both men and women can equally serve passengers while on a flight. However, according to David Sherwyn, a law professor at Cornell University, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act allows organizations to discriminate on the basis of “religion, sex, or national origin in those instances where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business or enterprise” (Shamsian, 2015, para. 7). In the case of Hooter’s, they are recognized by their patron’s as a “breastaraunt” where “Hooter Girls” serve the consumers. Therefore, it was successful argued, that a women only server policy was an essential ingredient to the success of the company under BFOQ law. It is worth noting that Although, Hooters won their case arguing BFOQ, they did pay out over $3.75 million dollars in settlements and agreed to allow some gender neutral positions within the establishment but not as a server (Shamsian,