By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Two women are claiming they were fired from their waitress jobs at a swanky Meatpacking District nightclub for being too short and not as "perfect" as runway models, according to a lawsuit filled in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The women, Faye Rex and Stephanie Jaggers, were serving drinks to guests at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel at 848 Washington St. until they were let go in August. Rex had been there since February 2010 and Jaggers since November 2009.
After the club did renovations in August, it "made a conscious decision to remove all cocktail waitresses who were not tall, extremely slender, and extremely good looking," the lawsuit filed Tuesday charges.
They claim they were discriminated against because they were too short. Rex, 24, is 5-foot-3-inches tall and Jaggers, 27, is 5-foot-5-inches, according to their lawyer, Richard Roth.
"They got rid of any women that were not tall, thin and modelesque," Roth told DNAinfo. He said he believed other women who did not fit the standard were fired or asked to resign around the same time as his clients, but he could not say how many others there were.
"The Boom Boom Room wanted only cocktail waitresses who fit into its own perception of perfection: women who appear to be willowy, svelte and statuesque runway models," Roth wrote in the complaint.
He said Rex and Jaggers "are attractive in their own right" but don't "meet the specific and limited criteria" the club wanted, according to the complaint.
The club did not institute the same terms for their bartenders, who are all attractive men, the complaint said.
The women claim they had received positive reviews from their employer prior to their termination, according to the lawsuit.
A club representative declined to comment on the charges when reached by phone Tuesday.
