Bosses can tell women staff to wear high heels
SOME working women think they are essential to looking smart in the office – while others just see them as a pain.
But those who want to kick off their high heels might not be able to any time soon.
For bosses will still be allowed to insist female employees wear heels, provided men are told to dress to an ‘equivalent level of smartness’.
Ministers have rejected calls to make the dress requirement illegal, deciding that existing laws are ‘adequate’ for preventing discrimination.
There was outcry from some women last year when receptionist Nicola Thorp, 28, was sent home from accountancy giant PwC after she showed up in flat shoes and was told she had to have a 2in to 4in heel.
She set up a petition, which attracted more than 152,400 signatures, asking for a new law banning companies from demanding that women wear heels.
A subsequent investigation by the Commons women and equalities committee and petitions committee found women workers have been told to dye their hair, have manicures and unbutton their blouses to entice male customers. MPs also heard a black woman was forced to chemically straighten her hair by an agency providing temp workers to Harrods.
The issue was debated in Parliament in March and the Government Equalities Office has now ruled out a change in the law, saying it is already illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender.
However it accepted awareness of the rules is patchy, with some employers ‘knowingly flouting the law’. The department called on employers with dress codes to ‘consider whether they remain relevant and lawful’, and plans to produce new guidelines in the summer to make the law clearer.
Under the Equality Act, firms can set different dress codes for men and women as long as they are not deemed to be treating one sex more or less favourably. Miss Thorp, from London, said the deci- sion was a ‘cop-out’. She acknowledged the current law but said that ‘unfortunately, because of intrinsic sexism, when employers are allowed the freedom to decide what is fair and unfair it tends to be women that lose out’.
Last night Maria Miller, chairman of the women and equalities committee, said the Government should do more to stop sexism.
‘Equality legislation is not sufficient to achieve equality in practice,’ she said. ‘This petition and the committees’ inquiry have reinforced the need for effective enforcement of legislation and for employers and employees to be aware of their obligations and rights.’ However she said she ‘welcomes the commitments made by the Government to increasing awareness of those rights’.
Helen Jones, who chairs the petitions committee said the petition and inquiry ‘have already done a great deal to improve public awareness of the law’.