Corporation/Workplace law - dress code- Vic, Aust.

S

Soma

Bluelighter
Joined
May 5, 2000
Messages
1,720
Hi there,

I work for a company that has recently introduced a 'dress code' for a workplace which during business hours which consists of something along the lines of 'smart, with a business influence' - whatever that means. This has now been extended to outside of business hours - ie from 5pm-11 and weekends. There is nothing in our individual work place agreements (AWA's) that covers dress code, and our workplace is not open to the public so there is no loss of image from having us in casual clothes.

My question - is there grounds for or company to impress/enforce a dress code upon us, either during 'business hours' or outside of business hours. As you could imagine having this pressed upon us has upset a few people who see little value in us getting dressed up to work weekends in a call centre where the only other people that see us are your workmates. Can we claim 'loss of conditions' where previously a casual clothes workplace has become more rigid?
 
having a "during work hours" dress code policy is perfectly acceptable and normal (i mean even the zit faced losers working in mcdonalds have to wear uniforms) but i think they are walking a fine line trying to control what you wear during your free time. this is possibly infringing on your freedom of expression, and if they ban t-shirts sporting certain logos then they could be barring you from your right to freedom of speech....u should talk to a lawyer in regards to this, or if your too cheap, at least file a complaint with your manager and contact the companies legal and/or human resources department
 
Firstly, the US constitution/Bill of Rights doesn't extend to the rest of the world.

Secondly, its not during our free time. Its during the time businesses are not normally open, ie 5-11pm and weekends.

Thirdly, if we had face to face customer interaction, then of course I wouldn't mind certain dress standards. A call centre behind security doors etc is a far cry from McDonalds.
 
Simple answer here. If an employer wants to require you to adhere to a dress code, so be it. Much like drug testing is well within the bounds of an employer, so too would a much less intrusive dress code. The motivations could be numerous behind such a policy, and clearly the employer believes enforcing the dress code on weekends will somehow benefit the business. If you don't like it, find a new job.

I have to submit to random drug tests at my job--wanna trade me? I'd take a dress code anyday.

EDIT: This is, of course, speaking from an American-type job perspective, and more specifically, in a right-to-work state. I am not sure about what your AWAs entail or how binding they are. So, realize this is just one possible perspective.
 
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Soma,
Have they asked you to sign anything promising them you will wear adhere to the code....is it a private or publicly owned company. If it's a government position you will have less leeway. I'm in Aus to so i'm thinking from the aussie perspective not U.S.
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Drug testing may be within the rights of employers in the U.S. but in australia we haven't given up as many of our civil liberties, only goverment agencies are allowed to impose this on us. This is also a far cry from dress codes!
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Have you talked to your immediate supervisor? They might be able to make a consideration with the after hours bit. Is it set in concrete or up to individual members of management to enfoce as they see fit?
 
Nope we haven't signed anything that mentions a dress code at all. There has always been a code for 9-5, but now they want to enforce it from 5-11pm as well. When I joined it was a good thing that we could wear casual wear, and I see it that they have reduced our conditions from not having it again. I'm pretty pissed at this, I can't see any reason for it whatsoever. I can't really talk to my supervisor because they are the ones enforcing this.
 
if your going to insolently reply to my advice and say "the US constitution/Bill of Rights doesn't extend to the rest of the world.", then do you mind telling us what country you are in, because i (and im sure a large quantity of others here) would assume a post to be from North America unless otherwise stated....it will be of substantial importance if you wish your question to answered promptly and correctly
 
^^^^

Calm down. If you read the thread title, you will see the original poster is from Victoria, Australia.
 
Here Here.
Why shouldn't we assume a message is from Australia unless otherwise stated? And could a moderator please tell me why there are different forum categories for social events and the like and not totally seperate ones for legal Q&A? This would solvce some confusion wouldn't it?
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Soma....maybe you should talk to your work colleagues about putting something in writing, signing it and giving that to management? Either asking for leneincy or a damn good reason why they changed it in the first place......
If they realise how many are disgruntled about the whole thing they may revert.
 
^^^Watch the sarcasm please, and I don't want Soma's thread to get hijacked. Bluelight members come from many different countries, not just Australia and the server is in Europe. I don't understand what you mean by "different categories." Please send me or the other mods a PM clarifying your statement, k?

Back to Soma's question:

It's always been a difficult line to draw between individual freedom of expression (and this is not intended as an inference to the US Constitution) and the image of the company as a whole. I have worked in law offices for four years and as strongly as I disliked wearing suits, skirts and nylons (we did not even have casual Fridays) I understood that we were billing our clients in excess of $300 per hour for the work of the attorneys and the least we can do is look nice.

Could you ask your supervisor in a roundabout, I'm just curious way why the policy was changed? They might blow off the question with a pat answer, but at least you tried. On the surface it seems a pointless policy, absolutely, but businesses have a right to run their business as they choose and if the conditions under which you are working do not suit your personality and values, then you probably should seek employment elsewhere.
 
Kinda late to post but...

As an Australian law student who has some experienc in Industrial law, i can tell you that this isn't the first time such an issue has arisen.

There was a case from 1982 about the right of a telstra phone operator's (akin to the modern day call centre worker) right to wear a kaftan to work. It was held (decided by the court) that as there was no customer contact and no safety requirements that the employer did not have a right to tell the employee what to wear. Differences arise obviously if what you wear compromises workplace health and safety laws - for example a turban may affect your ability to wear protective headwear on a construction site.

The case was Australian Telecommunications Commissioner v Hart (1982) - where directing an employee to not wear a kaftan was not a lawful or reasonable direction. However, the content of your AWA may say something about this. Ask any union reps if you feel strongly enough about it.

Hope that helps.
 
Ta SuperspeeD for your reply,

Perhaps I might ask the Union to mention this to our Call Centre manager on our behalf. I'm a member of the consultative committee (made up of a few people from the call centre that voices concerns to management about various things) and there were a lot of complaints about this extention of the dress code hours. Things like 'Well I go to school during the day, I don't want to have to carry around and bring a change of clothes to work, where there is no facilites for us to change', and things like that. Those comments are going to be taken by our manager to the upper management, but be feels there is not much hope in them seeing sense.

I can see that they may argue that sometimes clients may come into the call centre to see how it is being run (it does happen), but I've never seen it out of 9-5 hours before.

I gather that because most of the centre is casual that this may have some impact, but there is nothing in our AWA's about a dress code at all.

That case that you mentioned, was that relating to a Federal Law? Is my company bound by that ruling? Is there anything else I should be aware of.

Our dispute resolution processes as spelt out in our AWA's allow us to take a matter to be heard by the IRC if need be (which we have unfortunantly had to do before) although this may be trivial, it certainly is an option.
 
Um sorry for the lateness again..

Cheers,

Yeah that was a federal ruling, and would apply to your business. Your union people should be well informed in this area, probably more so than i could be. It may be better to try to bring it up with bosses rather than go to the IRC due to the hostility/cost/etc that can arise, but sometimes change won't happen until it is court-enforced.

Good luck with it, post up how you go.
 
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