A Muslim waitress has been awarded a £3,000 pay out for sexual harassment after being made to wear a revealing red dress for work.

Fata Lemes, 33, quit her job after claiming that the low-cut dress was “disgusting” and made her look like a “prostitute”.

Miss Lemes, a Bosnian Muslim, had told an employment tribunal that she “might as well have been naked” in the dress.

“I was brought up a Muslim and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes,” she said.

But lawyers acting for the Rocket Bar where she worked, have tried to re-open the case after a picture emerged of Miss Lemes on Facebook showed her wearing a plunging T-shirt exposing her cleavage while she was at the beach.

The Central London Employment Tribunal awarded Miss Lemes damages after pointing out that only women - and not male staff - were required to wear the summer uniform at the bar in Mayfair, London.

The outfit was described as “brightly coloured, figure hugging garb”.

But the tribunal said Miss Lemes’s £20,000 compensation claim - including £17,500 for hurt feelings - was “manifestly absurd”.

Instead they awarded her £2,919.95 for both hurt feelings and loss of earnings.

The tribunal said that while Miss Lemes held “views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century,” her employer should have taken her feelings into account when asking her to wear the dress.

The ruling said: “Her perception was that wearing the dress would make her feel as if she was on show, as if she was being presented as one of the attractions which the Rocket Bar was offering its customers.

“In our view that perception was legitimate and not unreasonable. It [the dress] is clearly a garment for a girl or young woman. It is intended to, and does, show the curves of the body.”

Miss Lemes began working at the bar in May last year. A week later she was asked to change into the red dress instead of the loose fitting black linen shirt.

“It was indecent. If you put this dress on you might as well be naked,” she told the tribunal.

“Everything finishes in the middle at the chest. It is open at the front and the back. I did not want men looking at my body.”

Miss Lemes earnt £5.52 an hour plus a share of tips to supplement her income. She had been waitressing for 14 years but quit after telling her the bar’s manager she could not wear the dress.

At the tribunal, the restaurant group submitted photos of another waitress, Amanda Bjursten, wearing the dress in the bar. Ms Bjursten, who appeared at the hearing modelling the outfit said she was “completely comfortable” wearing it.

Luca Scanu, the bar manager, denied the dress was intended to increase sales and tips from male customers by being “sexually inviting”.