Dress code rules to end legal battles

STAFF must be allowed to wear religious symbols, such as a cross, if they do not affect their jobs, companies are to be told this month.

Official guidance will state that employers should be “flexible” and “understanding” in drawing up dress codes for employees.

Companies must not “prohibit religious symbols that do not interfere with an employee’s work”, it will say. The move follows research showing that religious employees felt under pressure to keep their beliefs and symbols hidden at work.

The new guidance comes partly in response to a report published last year by Parliament’s women and equalities committee, setting out concerns for workers affected by “discriminatory dress codes”.

The committee, which also singled out the problem of women being required to wear high heels, stated: “It is clear that the Equality Act 2010 is not yet fully effective in protecting workers from discrimination.” The guid- ance, which will be published by the Government Equalities Office, will set out what businesses can and cannot include in dress codes.

The rules are designed to provide a set of guidelines, which could offer clarity in future legal disputes relating to allegations of discriminatory dress codes.

Officials cited the case of Nadia Eweida, a British Airways employee who took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after the airline insisted she stop wearing her white gold cross visibly. The court ruled in her favour, saying her rights had been violated and BA had not struck a fair balance between her beliefs and its desire to project “a certain corporate image”. The court said manifesting religion is a “fundamental right”.

But the ECHR rejected another legal challenge from a nurse, Shirley Chaplain, ruling that a hospital could refuse permission to wear a cross necklace for health and safety reasons.

It was argued there was a risk a patient could pull the chain or the cross could hit an open wound.