Restaurant Under Fire for ‘Sexually Suggestive’ Message on Employees’ Uniforms

A shawarma chain in Detroit is under scrutiny for sexually suggestive employee uniforms. In a complaint made by local businesswoman Jerroll Sanders, attention was brought to the evocative statement written across female employees’ backsides. The skintight leggings that were part of Bucharest Grill‘s given uniform shocked Sanders and incited her to write an impassioned Facebook post. So what exactly do the uniforms say that moved Sanders to speak out? Across the butt of the leggings worn by female employees it reads: ‘We Deliver.’

In the post written on July 14, Sanders explained her initial recognition of the uniforms and her immediate response. “It seemed very sexual to me and I was livid,” she wrote. “It seemed so disrespectful to our girls. I complained and so did other mothers who took note of the message. Some of the girls working there were obviously pleased with my complaint.”

According to local radio host Greg Bowman of WWJ, the owner of Bucharest Grill, Bogdan Tarasov, said that no employee was ever forced to wear a uniform. But in looking at some of the restaurant’s mentions online, it seems that Bucharest Grill already had a reputation for the public sexualization of the restaurant’s employees.

By the looks of photos on Yelp, male employees at Bucharest Grill are outfitted in plain black pants or jeans while their female co-workers in the worded leggings — a seemingly sexist discrepancy raised by one of Sanders’s commenters. Although the specific leggings with the words mentioned in her initial complaint have since been taken out of the uniform rotation, a message across their butts remains.

On Tuesday, Sanders made an additional statement on her Facebook page, where she stated that she is still “not pleased” with the restaurant owner, who has yet to make new unmarked bottoms.

“He says he needs a week to examine the financial implications of having to buy new uniform pants for persons in all his locations. I suggested that he simply require employees to wear plain black pants for now or provide a timeline specifying when the business will transition to uniforms that have no message on the buttocks.” She concluded, “OUR GIRL’S BACKSIDES SHOULD NOT SERVE AS AN ADVERTISING BILLBOARD.”

This is not the first time that Tarasov and his business practices have been punished and subsequently divided his customers. In March, he was fined $1,250 for “failing to maintain a vacant building, failing to register a vacant building, and failing to obtain a certificate of compliance.” The property, which became a source of danger in the neighborhood, has since been cleaned up and the house demolished. But now the business owner evidently has another issue to deal with.

In the meantime, Sanders plans on checking back up with the status of uniforms at Bucharest Grill in order to assure respect for female employees.

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