Indian restaurant fined for trying to hire Indian waiter

By Danika Fears

An Indian waiter in an Indian restaurant — imagine that!

City bureaucrats slapped a $5,000 fine on a Midtown Indian restaurant for trying to hire a server who is Indian, according to official documents.

Following an inquiry by The Post, the city’s Commission on Human Rights — which cited the eatery two years ago — said it’s assessing its practices.

Commission staffers have been trawling Craigslist to ensnare unwary restaurant owners who violate the law for things like seeking a “waitress” instead of a “wait-person.”

That’s gender discrimination by the city’s reckoning and could lead to a four-figure fine.

They hit the jackpot in October 2013, when Shalom Bombay on Lexington Avenue placed an ad for an “experienced Indian waiter or waitress.”

It might be common sense that an Indian restaurant would try to hire a server familiar with its cuisine, but to the city’s enforcers, it was a glaring red flag.

The law doesn’t allow ads that discriminate “based on national origin.”

The commission filed a complaint, eventually scheduling a trial for April 15 at the city’s administrative court.

There was a good reason the owners didn’t appear, according to former manager Raphael Gasner.
He told The Post the business closed in April 2014 — a year earlier.

Even without hearing both sides, a judge took pity on the owners and reduced the commission’s recommended $7,500 fine to $5,000.

http://nypost.com/2015/07/29/indian-restaurant-fined-for-trying-to-hire-indian-waiter/