(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Vermont Supreme Court has reinstated the sex bias and handicap- discriminati on claim of a chambermaid who lost her job at a ski resort because her dentures were too painful to wear. The employer told her that she could not return to work without her teeth. The ski resort, in Stowe, Vermont . . . decided to upgrade the resort's image to secure a ''four-star'' rating. In November the . . . executive housekeeper wrote Mary Hodgdon a letter declaring . . . ''Employees will be expected to have teeth and to wear them daily to work'' . . . The toothless chambermaid alleged that the appearance standards were imposed only on the female staff . . . Under Vermont law, the issue of whether sex was a motivating factor in management's conduct must go to the jury . . . The trial judge had ruled that management legitimately imposed higher grooming standards for the housekeeping employees because ((they)) have direct contact with the guests. ((But)) the appeals court found that . . . one of the maintenance workers who had lost his teeth had contact with the public to the same extent as the plaintiff. She asserted that the maintenance workers met and spoke with guests and helped guests to their cars while shoveling snow. -- From the BNA Daily Labor Report.