Debate on high heels and workplace dress codes

It’s still legal in the UK for a company to require female members of staff to wear high heels at work against their will. Dress code laws should be changed so that women have the option to wear flat formal shoes at work, if they wish. Current formal work dress codes are out-dated and sexist.

The House of Commons Petitions Committee and Women and Equalities Committee produced a report on this issue on 25th January 2017.

The summary of this report states that:

We started this inquiry after a petition calling for it to be illegal for a company to require its female staff to wear high heels at work was signed by more than 150,000 people. The petition was started because of an individual’s experience, but it has become clear in the course of our inquiry that this was not an isolated incident—and nor is the problem confined to high heels. We heard from hundreds of women who told us about the pain and long-term damage caused by wearing high heels for long periods in the workplace, as well as from women who had been required to dye their hair blonde, to wear revealing outfits and to constantly reapply make-up.

The Government has said that the existing law is clear, and that the dress code that prompted this petition is already unlawful. Nevertheless, discriminatory dress codes remain widespread. It is therefore clear that the existing law is not yet fully effective in protecting employees from discrimination at work. We call on the Government to review this area of the law and to ask Parliament to change it, if necessary, to make it more effective.

The relationship between the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and workplace dress codes is not widely understood. The Government has said that it expects employers to inform themselves about their legal obligations and to comply with the law. This approach is not working. The Government must do more to promote understanding of the law on gender discrimination in the workplace among employees and employers alike.

We recommend that the Government substantially increase the penalties available to employment tribunals to award against employers, including the financial penalties. At present, such penalties are not sufficient deterrent to breaking the law. This petition has done a great deal to raise awareness of the law. It has prompted at least one company to change its own dress code. It is now the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the law is both more widely understood and more effective.