Employers in B.C. may no longer be allowed to force their female workers to wear high heels, with politicians offering support for a private member's bill to ban the dress code on safety grounds.
B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver is looking to make it illegal for businesses to enforce footwear requirements based on a person's gender.
"It's a no brainer. I can't think of a compelling argument anywhere to say restaurant owners should be allowed to require women to wear high heels in a restaurant," Weaver told The Canadian Press. "It just doesn't make sense."
The new rules wouldn't ban heels from all workplaces, but an employer requiring staff to wear them must have the same requirement for all staff.
The bill has support from the province's premier, who says the current requirement isn't acceptable.
"Women should not be forced to wear high heels by their employers," Premier Christy Clark said at a press conference. "It is not fair."
The move to lift dress code requirements on footwear in B.C. follows a similar movement in the United Kingdom.
A woman working as a receptionist for PwC was sent home from her job in December 2015 for wearing flats instead of heels.
Nicola Thorp's employment agency, Portico, had a dress code specifying that female workers must wear non-opaque tights, have hair with "no visible roots," wear "regularly re-applied" makeup -- and appear in shoes with a heel between 5 to 10 centimetres high.
This prompted her to start an online petition, which after gaining 150,000 signatures was finally debated in the British Parliament last week.
"I had the choice of either will I get paid for a day's work, let go of my principles or stick to it," said Thorp. "I'm really glad now that I did."
Being forced to wear heels can cause long term damage to a person's foot, say medical experts.
"High heels can cause several problems," said Dr. Faiyaz Dedhar, a podiatrist. "Pain in the Achilles tendon, blisters, corns, calluses, we see it all, every day.
The bill has support from several B.C. business associations as well as all B.C. provincial parties, so the rules on high heels likely to be scrapped in the coming months.
With a report from CTV’s B.C. Bureau Chief Melanie Nagy and The Canadian Press
