No Bra, No Job at Canadian Golf Club.
2018 brought us not-so-uplifting news out of Canada about a waitress in British Columbia who lost her job at the Osoyoos Golf Club for refusing to wear a bra at work.
Members of the club reportedly complained about Christina Schell’s liberated appearance, in which she wore the restaurant’s required polo shirt, but no brassiere underneath, stating that she gave up the undergarment for “health reasons.” The matter got bounced to management, which revised the employee dress code to state, “Women must wear either a tank top or bra under their uniform shirt.”
Ms. Schell refused to be restrained by the rule and filed a discrimination claim with the local human rights tribunal, claiming sex discrimination.
How would this play out under American law? First, employers do have the right to require uniforms and to establish reasonable dress codes based on the requirements of work and the image being promoted by the employer. As such, it is reasonable to not want a public-facing employee to have his or her private parts pressing out in intimate detail through the employer’s uniform, even if that might be deemed too conservative or prudish by some.
Nevertheless, sexist or unequal dress codes that are not related to the work requirements can land employers in court. The Osoyoos rule applied only to restrict what women could wear – a better rule would have been to impose a similar requirement for all employees to wear undergarments – top and bottom. Similarly, an employer cannot ban one type of ethnic dress but not another, absent a job-related reason, such as working as a chef at Benihana.
As for Ms. Schell’s “health reasons,” no further detail was provided, but in the U.S. an employer has a duty under the Americans with Disabilities Act to accommodate dress requirements based on a disability, which may include exemptions from a dress code.
No word yet on the outcome of Ms. Schell’s case, or whether she was offered Canada’s version of CO-BRA. Perhaps she is waitressing for a French-Canadian brasserie sans brassieres.