A MUSLIM waitress has been awarded £3,000 compensation after refusing to wear a tight-fitting work uniform - despite wearing low-cut tops on Facebook.
Fata Lemes, 33, was handed the payout even though a tribunal panel rejected her claim that the dress was "sexually revealing and indecent".
Miss Lemes, who worked at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair for eight days last year, said she was made to "feel like a prostitute," by the work outfit.
Cleavage ... Lemes wearing low-cut top
Cleavage ... Lemes wearing low-cut top
Tim Stewart
A photo of Miss Lemes on Facebook, however, showed her wearing a low cut T-shirt revealing her cleavage.
Rocket Bar managers had told staff that the loose-fitting uniform for female members of staff would change in the summer.
The new female outfit consisted of a sleeveless red dress of mid-thigh length.
She told an employment tribunal in central London the figure-hugging dress was "disgusting".
Discrimination
It branded her compensation claim of £20,000 including £17,500 for hurt feelings - 'manifestly absurd'.
But it awarded her £2,919.95 for hurt feelings and loss of earnings.
Pictures were then found of Miss Lemes wearing revealing clothing on Facebook.
Lawyers for Spring & Greene, the restaurant group that owns Rocket, highlighted the picture to the tribunal but it is not known whether the panel ever saw it before making their judgment.
Ms Lemes, who is a photographer and supplements her income with bar work, claimed she was propositioned by two men on her second shift, who were looking for "a blonde Scandinavian or Swedish girl for one or more nights".
She then told bosses she felt unable to wear the dress and it became clear neither side would compromise, the panel found.
It rejected her claims that she was sacked from the bar and that she fell prey to discrimination because she did not receive tips for the shifts she worked.
A panel found that Mrs Lemes had "views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century".
But it upheld her claim that bar owners Spring and Greene had discriminated against her on the grounds of her gender.
They said of the dress: "Plainly, it related to her sex. It was gender-specific. The respondents did not introduce a summer uniform for male waiting staff. Unlike the women, the men were not required to switch to brightly coloured, figure-hugging garb."
Forcing her to wear the dress if she wanted to continue working at the bar "violated her dignity", the panel decided, and created a "humiliating" environment.
The panel found: "Her perception was that wearing the dress would make her feel as if she was on show, as if she was being presented as one of the attractions which the Rocket Bar was offering its customers.
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"In our view that perception was legitimate and not unreasonable. We are reinforced in this conclusion by the striking contrast between the dress and the dark, loose-fitting attire which would remain the men's uniform."
Ms Lemes was awarded £2,919.95 including interest, to cover compensation and wages owed. Her original claim of £17,500 was dismissed as "manifestly absurd".
The panel granted £3,000 compensation and £711.73 in wages, plus interest, giving a total of £3,893.26.
This was reduced by 25 per cent because the members found Ms Lemes's solicitor Joe Sykes did not set out the basis of grievance properly.
