Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 5, 2016 12 NEWS e ability for an employer to insist on these types of clothing choices has become quite limited, said Whitten. "And there's a recognition that there's liability associated with insisting women dress a certain way." It has become a risky legal area for employers moving forward — particularly employers in the hos- pitality industry — including the restaurant and bar scene — where a lot of employers have built a brand on providing a "certain look" for servers to entice clients. "I think those companies now are in dangerous territory," said Whitten. "It's not just the dress code and how the woman feels in it but, unfortunately, in this society, a lot of people misinterpret a woman's dress as saying something about her sexual morals or availability." Colleagues may even treat them differently, which could lead to le- gal trouble around sexual harass- ment complaints. On the flip side, some profes- sional offices such as law firms require everyone to dress quite conservatively, said Whitten. "Somewhere in the middle is probably the right thing. To re- quire everybody to wear a nun's habit? Not necessary. But, by the same token, requiring everybody to wear a halter top is not wise either." ere's no doubt that in many workplaces, there's been a shift towards employers relaxing dress codes, said Adrian Ishak, employ- ment lawyer and partner at Rubin omlinson in Toronto. And the OHRC policy around sexualized dress codes is an excel- lent step. "But very few employers are go- ing to find themselves in that posi- tion of requiring sexualized dress codes. I think the bigger issue is just, generally speaking, engen- dered expectations," he said. "ere's a number of issues — first of all, the gender issue and the trans issues that are associated with it." It's very important that employ- ers do not assign gender expecta- tions to dress codes — meaning women may wear skirts, or rules to that effect — because that could potentially cause issues among sexual minorities and trans indi- viduals in the workplace, he said. Best practices When it comes to dress codes, it's always best to have a clear, written policy instead of relying on com- mon sense, said Ishak. "Because common sense is ac- tually not that common — and nowhere is this more evident than in dress codes." Employers will often try to rely on employees' good judgment, and very often then have to backtrack and create a dress code, he said. "My advice to my clients is al- ways to have a dress code. You want to relax your dress code? at's fine, but have a written poli- cy about things that are acceptable and things that are not." ere are some issues to keep in mind, first and foremost of which is to avoid gendered norms, such as forcing women to wear skirts and men to wear pants. Also, avoid gendered language within the policy, said Ishak. "Employers that often move toward more relaxed, casual dress codes more often than not get out in front of it by having a written policy." Engendered expectations an issue: Lawyer DRESS CODE < pg. 3 "You want to relax your dress code? at's fine, but have a written policy." Starbucks recently announced a more relaxed dress code, producing a visual "lookbook" with examples.

• Cover