NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- New York City's human rights commission says it has reached a settlement with some Hasidic shop owners it claimed posted signs that discriminated against women.
The agreement ends a 17-month-long lawsuit in which the merchants faced fines totaling up to $75,000 for posting signs asking people not to enter the stores "sleeveless" or with a "low-cut neckline," the New York Post reported Wednesday.
The commission had claimed the signs violated city ordinances by restricting access by certain classes of people.
Patrick L. Gatling, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights,said in a statement shop owners will now post signs saying "that while modest dress is appreciated, all individuals are welcome to enter the stores free from discrimination," the New York Daily News reported.
The seven merchants affected, all in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, said the dress code was religion-based. After the agreement was reached, Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations Williamsburg, said the shop owners had been "vindicated."
"If you go to a upscale restaurant, there is a dress code," Niederman said. "Yet when small businesses in Williamsburg do the same, they are attacked and threatened with fines that would put them out of business?"
Jay Lefkowitz, who represented the businesses, said the exact wording of the signs was still being finalized.
"The shopkeepers always said that nobody was actually excluded from the stores," he said. "Any future signs will make clear that everybody is welcome, which was the reality."
