MP: sexist dress code injured my daughter

AN MP has told how her daughter broke her foot after she was forced to wear high heels at work as ministers promised more guidance for companies on workplace dress rules.

Ministers said the code will stop employers breaking anti-discrimination laws and promised more prosecutions to shame employers who require them to wear “sexualised clothing”.

Labour MP Gill Furniss said her daughter was de- nied sick pay or compensation after suffering a metatarsal fracture, the same injury that had threatened to put David Beckham out of the 2002 World Cup.

She criticised employers who force women to have to put up with “humiliating and degrading” dress codes.

She said some women are told they must wear a “full face” of make-up and are “even told which shade of red” to wear on their lips.

Ms Furniss said: “We know that in some professions, standing in high heels for a period of an eight-hour shift is the norm. Wearing heels in this way often causes foot pain, bunions, skin lesions, lower limb pathology and other related discomforts for the heel-wearer.

“In fact, my own daughter suffered from a metatarsal fracture, which is more commonly affiliated with sports injuries, when she was forced to wear high heels in a former retail job.

“She was denied any compensation or sick pay as she wasn’t on the payroll for long enough. Needless to say, she did not return.” The Westminster Hall debate came after more than 150,000 people signed an epetition calling on ministers to outlaw discriminatory workplace dress codes.

London receptionist Nicola Thorp launched the petition after she was sent home from work when she refused to wear high heels.

The revelations prompted the petitions committee and women and equalities committee to investigate. Labour MP Helen Jones, who chairs the petitions committee, said: “We found attitudes that belonged more, I was going to say in the 1950s, but probably the 1850s might be more accurate. And we found that women, especially young women in vulnerable employment, were exploited at work.”

Caroline Dinenage, the womens and equalities minister, said the Government would support the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in any legal actions against companies which are forcing women to wear heels or inappropriate uniform.