EEOC Files Age Discrimination Suit Over Firing of Strip Club Waitress, 56

The federal agency in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination laws has taken up the cause of a Texas strip club waitress allegedly illegally fired due to her age.

Although 56-year-old Mary Bassi made a six-figure income, was popular with customers and sold a lot of liquor for Cover Girls, she was disparaged as "old," fired and replaced by younger servers, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit against the strip club's Houston-based parent company and an EEOC attorney overseeing the case.

“It doesn’t matter what industry you work in. You are still protected by anti-discrimination laws,” EEOC attorney Connie Wilhite tells the Houston Chronicle.

A lawyer for the parent company, AHD Houston, declines to comment on the litigation specifically, but says the company has strict anti-discrimination policies and intends to defend it aggressively.

Now 59, Bassi is reportedly working as a waitress for another strip club.