US restaurant fined $5,000 for 'wanted waitress' job ad

NEW YORK: An Italian restaurant here has been slapped with a fine of $5,000 for putting a 'wanted waitress' job ad which the city's human rights commission said amounted to discrimination against males.

Businessman Sebastian Rozario of Sistina restaurant sought a 'waitress/barista' in the job ad. The city's Human Rights Commission, however, deemed it anti-male by placing a wanted ad for a 'waitress'.

The Commission claims the restaurant violated civil rights laws for posting a Craigslist ad seeking a 'hostess/coat check' as the term 'hostess' is a gender-specific to women only. An investigator flagged it as anti-male discrimination.

According to Sistina's owners, the ad was placed by a 24-year-old female employee who admitted she used the word 'hostess' without giving it a thought, "I just wrote it as I would write any other ad," she was quoted as saying by eater.com.

New York State Senator Jose Peralta said the agency should not target businesses that carelessly or accidentally use "unintentionally gendered language."

But in the Sistina case, the Commission claimed they "tested" the ad by sending two emails to the given address, one with a male name and the other with a female name. It says only the female-gendered email was opened, but Sistina's owners argue that could have simply been an oversight.