Chippendales OKs Quota for Hiring of Black Workers

Chippendales, the West Los Angeles nightclub that features male dancers, agreed today to an affirmative action program under which it pledges that blacks will make up 25% of all new employees and the club will do at least $500,000 in business with black merchants, beginning next year.

The agreement follows a two-year dispute in which several black law students at UCLA contended that the nightclub imposes a racial quota on the number of black men allowed inside the club.

In announcing the agreement, Los Angeles attorney A. Thomas Hunt, representing the black students, said the nightclub also agreed to pay a total of $85,000 to blacks--not to exceed $250 to an individual--who can prove they were denied admission because of their color.

Chippendales’ lawyer, Los Angeles attorney Bruce Nahin, said the nightclub has never discriminated against blacks. He called occasions when blacks were denied admission “isolated incidents.”