60-yr-old Houston strip club waitress wins age discrimination case

WASHINGTON - A 60-year-old Houston strip bar waitress, who said she was fired four years ago for being too old, has won an age discrimination lawsuit.

Mary Bassi, a former waitress at the strip club ‘Cover Girls’, also claimed that she was teased about Alzheimer’s disease and menopause, before being fired in 2006 at the age of 56, reports ABC News.

And in the months leading up to her firing, she said her employers started hiring younger workers and asked them to take her shifts.

Bassi brought the case against Cover Girls, owned by brothers Ali and Hassan Davari, because she had been performing her job well and had received no disciplinary action.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took her case and she has now won a 60,000 dollars settlement.

“You can’t discriminate against people because of age regardless of what industry they work in,” said Connie Wilhite, the attorney who handled her case.

She added that age discrimination was a common issue for strippers and topless dancers.

Wilhite said Bassi’s victory was a significant step forward for those in the industry.

“It lets them know that they’re not just a value because of their youth. They can’t be run out of any industry as they get older,” she added.

According to Wilhite, a male manager in his thirties was responsible for Bassi’s harassment, and dragged it on for around a year.

He is accused of mocking her for her age, by asking how old she was, repeatedly teasing her about her age and making jokes about her experiences with menopause. (ANI)