Dress codes changing for servers: BC Restaurant Association
Posted March 8, 2016 4:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s International Women’s Day, a time for reflection on gender inequality. One visible example continues to be dress codes for restaurant servers, but there may be signs of change in the industry.
There are still restaurants and bars where you’ll see men in pants and women tottering around in short skirts and high heels. This subject is tackled by the Ontario Human Rights Commission in a recent issue paper. It calls gender specific dress codes for servers discriminatory and puts the onus on employers to make sure their dress codes don’t reinforce sexist stereotypes.
That old standard may be already starting to fade away. For example, Earls tells us their dress code is changing to allow female servers to choose between a skirt or pants rather than women having to specifically request to wear pants.
President of the BC Restaurant Association, Ian Tostenson says he’s seeing more eateries moving to gender neutral dress codes and he credits social media shaming.
“If you’re not doing something right or doing something inappropriate, you’re going to be in big trouble. No business owner wants to have that. No one wants to be in the press about sexualizing their employees. It’s just not nice stuff. In an instant, it can be so visible.”
He says restaurant owners may want to get on board with the change now, or risk funding they’re no longer able to attract quality employees.
