Restaurant Chain Balks At Hooters Guys

The Hooters restaurant chain said Wednesday it would refuse a federal commission’s recommendation that the company hire men to work alongside its Hooters Girls waitresses.

“Hooters is fighting back,” Mike McNeil, a vice president of Hooters, said at a news conference that was attended by 20 of the chain’s young female waitresses. “… A lot of places serve good burgers. The Hooters Girls, with their charm and All-American sex appeal, are what our customers come for.”

The Atlanta-based Hooters of America Inc. called the news conference to protest a decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC several months ago said Hooters’ policy of hiring only female waitresses amounts to sex discrimination.

But McNeil said federal law allows some gender-based hiring. He said the Playboy organization is allowed to hire female bunnies, for example.

But Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, called Hooters’ policy blatant discrimination and said, “Hooters doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.”