Bartender says exotic club demoted her because she was pregnant

District of Columbia County, DC | Category: Crime | Sunday, March 07, 2010

(CNN) -- A pregnant bartender says she is fighting to keep her job at a gentlemen's club in New York.

Jennifer Paviglianiti, of Centereach, N.Y., claims her employer, Café Royale, discriminated against her because of her pregnancy. She filed a claim with the EEOC earlier this month.

Paviglianiti says she feared how her boss would react to her pregnancy and wanted to wait a few months to tell him. However, John Doxey found out before she could tell him, and that's when Paviglianiti claims her job became threatened.

Up until she became pregnant, the 29-year-old says she had been one of the club's most popular bartenders. Read the complaint

She says she "bonused 9 times" since August and it was only toward the end of her pregnancy that she asked for different hours.

Due to the tough economy, Paviglianiti says she needed this specific bartending job and feared she'd soon be out of work. To protect herself, she decided to secretly record her boss on tape.

On those recordings Doxey can be heard saying, "Customers don't wanna come in and see a pregnant woman behind the bar!" These recordings were also submitted in her EEOC discrimination claim.

In other recordings, Doxey is heard suggesting that Paviglianiti's appearance is hurting business. "Maybe they don't go there because the bartender is pregnant and doesn't look sexy."

Workplace attorney Robin Bond said it's within Doxey's right to do this if employees were informed that they had to maintain a specific "sexy look" to qualify for the job.

In this case, that means Paviglianiti would have had to be hired as a "model and a bartender" and get a written agreement to this -- as is done in the casino industry, Bond said on HLN Prime News with Mike Galanos.

When asked by Galanos if she signed any paperwork of that sort, Paviglianiti said, "not at all ... nothing."

Paviglianiti was taken off the bartending schedule for a few weeks, during which she hired an attorney. She later returned to the club as a cashier but claims she made much less than she did as a bartender.

However, Doxey's attorney says this proves she was never fired and her job duties were only adjusted to accommodate her pregnancy.

"My client declines to comment on pending legal action except to say it considers that Ms. Paviglianiti allegations are without merit," attorney Robert F. Milman said in a statement. "Ms. Paviglianiti was not terminated from her employment, she presently is on maternity leave and she has the right to return to work upon the conclusion of her leave."

Paviglianiti is due to have a baby girl this week.

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There are 3 comments.

Comments made by M60(3/7/2010 6:47:28 PM)
I feel sorry for the kid she's going to have. I think we all know why men go to strip clubs....they've been doing it for hundreds if not thousands of years, and I'm pretty sure it's not to see a knocked up bartender. She's just looking for a fast payday.

Comments made by ak47(3/7/2010 6:46:27 PM)
i think the real 'fire' behind this case is the fact that women are discriminated against at nearly any and all jobs a woman CAN have due to pregnancy (or just due to being a woman of child bearing age, even if we tell them we do not plan to have children). i just find it hilarious that it took the ...more

Comments made by va(3/7/2010 6:43:31 PM)
Yes, this is technically discrimination, but that doesn't make it automatically bad. The dishonest implication with using the term discrimination is that a scenario like this can be equated to one where someone is truly being treated differently because of their race or something else that could in ...more

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