Can An Employer Make You Wear Long Sleeves?

[Graceabeth]

Hi,

My sister's company wants her to wear smart wear which is fine but they want long sleeves blouses and long sleeved jackets. My sister is very hot blooded and the other people in her office arent so the heating is always on. My sister would rather wearshort sleeved blouse's under her long sleeved jackets. Can her company make her wear long sleeves all the time? She wears smart jackets and everything else they ask (it is not a uniform) but she finds long sleeves in the hot weather unbearable! What is the law on this sort of thing?

[woofgang]

If its part of the T and C of the job that she should wear or avoid wearing certain things then yes they can. She might get somewhere by talking to occy health if she gets rashes and so on.

[Graceabeth]

I'm not sure whether it is in the contract or T's and C's but all it states is that she has to wear 'smart' wear. This leaves it rather open to interpretation and her managers interpretation is that this means all long sleeves!

[boxtops]

There ought to be a policy somewhere in HR about uniform if they are insisting on this but this has to take into account people's preferences, if it's not a uniform as such. Does she have an HR department who could provide some guidance?

[Graceabeth]

They are a small company and the HR is done by and outside company. I will sugest to her that she speaks to HR and asks them if they have any policies but she dosent want to upset her manager!

[woofgang]

it seems to me she has a choice, which is to wear long sleeves or upset her manager!

[boxtops]

Are they on show to the public? I would hate to have to wear a jacket while I'm working in the office - I can understand it if people are dealing with the lic, but not "backstage".

[boxtops]

^public

[joko]

is she allowed to take the jacket off at all?
how would they know if the sleeves are short or long under a jacket? do they check?

if it was a uniform that had long sleeves you'd have to wear it.


perhaps she could get something fake for her sleeves?
like a 2 inch thick piece of blouse fabric, a cuff, placed round her wrist.
sounds drastic i know but if they are being that strict then the only way is so 'look' the part, but fool them.

i'd got to a charity shop and buy a load of shirts, cut the cuffs off and get some double sided tape to attach to jacket sleeve.
doesnt even matter if they dont match because lots of blouses have different cuffs.

then she could wear short sleeves or even no sleeves at all