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By LAURA ITALIANO
Melody Morales
Melody Morales
Last updated: 6:18 pm
January 27, 2009
Posted: 4:02 pm
January 27, 2009
She had everything a bikini-themed restaurant could want - waitressing experience, ample motivation, and a more than ample bra size of 34-D.
But pretty Melody Morales says she was still rejected for a job at Times Square's Hawaiian Tropic Zone - because she "talks ghetto."
"We will not hire you because you have a 'speech problem,'" a Hawaiian Tropic Zone manager told Morales, according to her million-dollar Manhattan Supreme Court discrimination lawsuit. "You have a Latin accent. You don't speak white."
Morales countered: "I'm five-foot-six. I'm slim and slender. I got boobs. Ok? I was perfect for the job."
The restaurant is already reeling from a $600 million federal lawsuit from October, in which four waitresses say managers looked the other way while a general manager repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted them.
Morales' complaint, though, is that she couldn't get in on the fun at the swanky tourist trap - or the $500-a-day earnings.
Discrimination was the sole reason for not getting the job, said Morales, a 21-year-old Upper West Sider whose father is Puerto Rican and mother is Dominican.
On repeated trips to the restaurant, waitresses would tell her they were hiring, she said. But managers would always tell her there were no openings.
Finally, in a June phone call overheard by her mother, managers named "Rick" and "Frank" spilled the truth, the lawsuit alleges.
"You are ghetto," "Frank" allegedly told her.
Morales concedes she has a Latin accent. But as a U.S. citizen - New York-born and raised - she said her English is fine.
Besides, it had been her dream, she said, to carry plates of the restaurant's signature crispy chicken lollipops and hung beef while wearing a fuschia bikini and a sarong.
At her previous job, at the Hooters in Midtown, she wore shorts and a tank top, she said. She felt overdressed.
"I just love the idea of working in a bikini," said Morales, who said she is now reduced to working in a bikini bar in upstate Ossining.
"It was my dream job."
Morales' lawyer, Derek Smith, said she's seeking $500 a day - or $130,000 a year - for every year she could reasonably be expected to have worked there, plus punitive damages that could potentially total over a million dollars.
"It's their arrogance that gets you," said Smith. "They told her, 'Go ahead, sue. We've got the best lawyers in the world."
Hawaiian Tropic Zone lawyer James Rosenzweig said this in response:
"We are proud of the many Latino and Latina employees in our diverse workforce. We are an equal opportunity employer and find this claim to be without merit."
at some of her comments.
[h1]Former Hooters girl Melody Morales sues Hawaiian Tropic Zone for discrimination[/h1]
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, January 27th 2009, 7:53 PM
A FORMER Hooters girl who says she's got the right assets - but the wrong accent - is suing the Hawaiian Tropic Zone for crushing her dream of working as one of its bikini-clad beauties.
Melody Morales said she was rejected for a job by a manager at the Times Square restaurant who griped, "You don't speak white" and "you are ghetto."
The 21-year-old Latina lovely is the latest woman to sue over working conditions at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, where employees in skimpy beachwear parade nightly before diners.
"Not to brag, but I look good in a bikini," Morales said yesterday. "I could have done a perfect job there."
The suit says Morales went with her mother to the restaurant last March in search of a job. It claims a manager told her to get lost, saying, "I am not going to ruin my business with your Latin accent."
Morales, who said her dream job is to pour drinks while strutting her stuff in a bikini, returned to the Hawaiian Tropic Zone months later still in pursuit of a position.
Her suits says another manager instantly rejected her, telling her, "We will not hire you because you have a speech problem," and "You have a Latin accent."
"It is 100% illegal to discriminate because of where you're from or because you have an accent," said her lawyer, Derek Smith. "Melody certainly has the assets for this job."
Morales, who sports an ample 34-D cup size, said she was appalled.
"They never even looked at me in a bikini," she whimpered.
A lawyer for the Riese Organization, which operates the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, said the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, is "without merit."
"We are proud of the many Latino and Latina employees in our diverse workforce," said James Rosenzweig.
The restaurant that bills itself as "The Hottest Place on Earth" is facing a $600 million federal suit from four former female workers accusing an ex-boss of sickening sexual antics.
"I believe everything they're saying," Morales said.
Morales, who is of mixed Dominican and Puerto Rican background, works at a bikini bar in Westchester County.
"It was kind of like my dream to work at the [Hawaiian Tropic Zone]," she said. "It's the bikini, I guess."
The restaurant is spread across three floors and 16,000 square feet. It features a two-story waterfall, a setting that "tantalizes the senses" and menu items such as hung barbecue ribs and crispy chicken lollipops.
On its Web site, the restaurant features pictures of several of its sexy staff, which include a go-go dancer from Russia, a hostess from Nigeria and a bartender from Puerto Rico.
But Morales said the place has no room for someone with her accent.
"I guess they want their girls to speak white," she said.
jmartinez@
edit.nydailynews.com
found a slightly different article on the daily news.@ her reasoning behind why it's her dream job: ""It's thebikini, I guess."
