Can You be Required to Wear a Costume at Work
I work at a hotel corporation in North Carolina, I am a cocktail server in the main hall of the establishment. About three months ago we were celebrating the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the women were asked to wear fake pearls and a headband for the occasion, indicative of the "Flapper Girl". Eventually, the men in charge of the food and beverage department decided to make this apart of our uniform, permanently (no new uniform contracts.) All of the women who are forced to wear this new "uniform requirement" feel demeaned by it, it is tacky, and sexist. I have not been wearing it lately, Today got reprimanded by one of our food and beverage managers, basically saying that if I don't start wearing it that I should find a new job. Could I sue this company?
Thanks,
A
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
Hi,
I'm not an attorney, but here is my take and I'm pretty confident about it.
1) have you seen the uniforms worn by hooters waitresses?
2) unless you make it clear that you are content to throw your money away, and pay cash in advance, no attorney will take this case.
3) the judge would dismiss outright
4) if by some miracle he didn't dismiss it, you would loose.
5) even if they fixed the uniform, do you want to work for people of that character?
6) do you want to BE the girl that works for people of that character?
7) find new job.
Sorry to deliver the bad news. Good luck. Remember the high road is the hard road, but its the only one that gets the view.
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
do you ever wear a skirt or dress? If so you have worn sexist clothing, by choice.
2 piece bathing suit? sexist
as the headband being sexist; don't tell the NBA players that wear one
and a necklace; not gender specific. Pearls I suppose but a necklace, nope.
a lot of uniforms at restaurants are what I would call tacky. Nothing illegal about being tacky.
demeaned? seriously? A playboy bunny outfit might be demeaning but pearls and a headband? Not a chance.
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Could I sue this company?
sure. You would lose but you can sue them. You'll be looking for a new job as well.
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
I
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t's a head band with ****ing silver beads and a feather, anyone rocking that in the NBA?
well, he used to be: Dennis ****ing Rodman.
give it a break. Unless you have a CONTRACT stating what your uniform will be, your employer can change it. If you have a contract, whip it out let the boss know the new attire is a violation of the contract. Then see where that goes.
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
In the absence of that employment contract mentioned above which we suspect you do not have, since almost no one does, your only alternative to wearing the costume is letting them fire you for refusing to wear the costume, and filing for unemployment benefits. Approval of those benefits would be a very big maybe/maybe not issue, particularly since you didn't refuse it all along, you agreed to wear the costume before, thus accepting the terms of employment and this being a requirement, and then now have decided not to accept it anymore because it's tacky and you don't like it. You live in an " at will" state. Your employer can legally fire you for just about anything and usually, in almost all cases, filing for unemployment benefits is your only redress.
Or you have the legal option of quitting your job for that same reason. Yours is also an "at will" state where you can quit a job at will. But your chances of getting unemployment if you quit are even slimmer.
Filing a suit against the employer? No labor laws have been broken unless you can prove a pervasive pattern of discrimination against people of your sex by management, which you have complained about to them and they have done nothing to correct. An EEOC complaint would take a really long time to investigate and process. If they find out you filed it, you'd very likely be terminated. Frankly, your best alternative to wearing the tacky costume is to find another job, right away, before you quit or file grievances, etc., Any attorney worth having would tell you that you don't have any legal case against your employer unless you could come to them with a "right to sue letter" issued by the EEOC, about a year from now (if you filed your grievance right away.)
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
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comment/ator
In the absence of that employment contract mentioned above which we suspect you do not have, since almost no one does, your only alternative to wearing the costume is letting them fire you for refusing to wear the costume, and filing for unemployment benefits. Approval of those benefits would be a very big maybe/maybe not issue, particularly since you didn't refuse it all along, you agreed to wear the costume before, thus accepting the terms of employment and this being a requirement, and then now have decided not to accept it anymore because it's tacky and you don't like it. You live in an " at will" state. Your employer can legally fire you for just about anything and usually, in almost all cases, filing for unemployment benefits is your only redress.
Or you have the legal option of quitting your job for that same reason. Yours is also an "at will" state where you can quit a job at will. But your chances of getting unemployment if you quit are even slimmer.
Filing a suit against the employer? No labor laws have been broken unless you can prove a pervasive pattern of discrimination against people of your sex by management, which you have complained about to them and they have done nothing to correct. An EEOC complaint would take a really long time to investigate and process. If they find out you filed it, you'd very likely be terminated. Frankly, your best alternative to wearing the tacky costume is to find another job, right away, before you quit or file grievances, etc., Any attorney worth having would tell you that you don't have any legal case against your employer unless you could come to them with a "right to sue letter" issued by the EEOC, about a year from now (if you filed your grievance right away.)
Excellent and accurate information. Although I expect it will be met with more tacky language from the OP (because she doesn't want excellent and accurate information, she just wants to hear that she's on the road to winning millions in the lawsuit lottery - even if that's wrong - and if she doesn't hear that she's gonna win big time, she's just gonna throw another tacky little tantrum).
Re: Can You be Required to Wear a Costume at Work
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mcclaren89
I am a cocktail server in the main hall of the establishment.
When you work in a restaurant that adopts a theme, you can anticipate that they will impose a dress code or uniform requirement that is consistent with the theme. Unless there's a contractual restriction on their imposing a uniform requirement, something I have never actually seen in a restaurant setting, it simply becomes part of the job. Legal rights may kick in if the employer is making you pay for the uniform, if you have bona fide religious beliefs that conflict with the uniform (e.g., your religious beliefs require a full or partial head covering, and the employer forbids any head coverings), or if you have a qualifying medical condition that interferes with a dress or grooming requirement (e.g., a male employee has pseudofolliculitus barbae and his employer requires that all male employees be clean shaven).
Re: Being Forced to Wear a Costume at Work
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Any attorney worth having would tell you that you don't have any legal case against your employer unless you could come to them with a "right to sue letter" issued by the EEOC, about a year from now (if you filed your grievance right away.)
Any good attorney would look at the facts of what the employer is requiring and opine on whether that is illegal discrimination or otherwise violates the applicable employment law and then advise what to do from there. The issuance of a right to sue letter is pretty meaningless in terms of determining how strong or weak the employee’s case is for illegal discrimination by the employer. Why? Because the EEOC provides the right to sue letter for any case that it does not choose to handle itself regardless of whether there is a strong case against the employer or not. Thus, all that the right to sue letter tells you is that the EEOC decided it didn’t want to litigate this case for the employee and it’s up to the employee to decide what to do from there. Indeed, an employee has the right to ask the EEOC for an immediate right to sue letter if he or she wants, which the EEOC will then issue without having done any investigation. The importance of the right to sue letter is simply that the employee must first get that letter prior to filing suit against the employer in court. The vast majority of complaints made to the EEOC end in a right to sue letter; the agency takes only a very, very small number of cases to litigate itself.
All that said, the issue of required dress can sometimes lead to illegal sex discrimination if men and women are being treated significantly different and there is no bona fide business purpose served by the differing treatment. If both male and female servers are required to wear flapper era costumes then it will be nearly impossible to make out a good sex discrimination claim. But if men are allowed to wear whatever they want and only women have required costumes that may be more of a problem for the employer. The exact details matter.