Howto...

● SA has no guidelines on the often controversial office dress code. Employment legislation outlaws discrimination, and this has to be remembered if an employer adopts a dress code, says Alice Haddon, a candidate attorney at Norton Rose Fulbright.

She has the following advice:

● Companies are free to impose dress codes but they must have “some justification in commonly accepted social norms” and be “reasonably related to the employer’s business needs”;

● Often a particular company demands certain rules on what constitutes appropriate attire. This may be due to industry standards or for safety of staff;

● A dress code cannot impose discriminatory requirements on a group of employees — for example, requiring only women to wear uniforms. However, if the discrimination is justified, such as factory workers must wear uniforms while office workers do not, the code would be allowed;

● Dismissal for failure to comply with the dress code can be challenged as discriminatory if there was unfair discrimination, such as on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or religion. — Margaret Harris