TORONTO

Busted.

Employers who require waitresses and other female workers to wear sexy, cleavage-baring outfits are bucking for a legal dressing down from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

The commission is telling the province’s employers — with a special shout-out to the restaurant and bar industry — to stop demanding that their workers dress provocatively as a condition of employment.

OHRC chief commissioner Renu Mandhane said requiring female staff to adhere to a sexualized dress code — makeup, tight skirts or low-cut tops — is discriminatory.

Research from the U.S. shows that the rates of sexual harassment increase in workplaces where there are “gendered” dress codes, she said.

“So our concern is that this sexualizes the work environment in a way that might lead to sexual harassment,” Mandhane said. “Approximately 70% of the people who work in this industry are young women and so this is precarious employment.

“It’s often a second or part-time job, and so they’re not the actual people who have the power to really say to their employer, ‘No, I don’t actually want to dress this way.’”

A sexualized dress code could also shut out potential employees who practise a specific religious belief, or transgendered individuals who do not feel comfortable in that type of clothing, Mandhane said.

The policy was announced Tuesday on International Women’s Day, and it informs employers that they could be in violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.

“Excellent customer service doesn’t have a cup size,” Kathy Laird, executive director of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, said in a statement. “I hope women will call us for legal help if cleavage is deemed an essential skill in their workplace.”

Women’s Issues Minister Tracy MacCharles said she expects restaurants will provide “respectful” clothing options for servers.

“I imagine that patrons will be absolutely fine with that,” she said.

A spokesman for the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA) could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

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The Sun talked to Renu Mandhan, Ontario Human Rights Commission chief commissioner, about the message to restaurants and bars to stop demanding their workers dress provocatively as a condition of employment.

Q: Why act now?

“This is an issue that we’ve been working on for almost 20 years. We had put out a policy called human rights at work that talked about dress codes and how dress codes could be discriminatory. But recently learned of the women ... who complained about the Bier Markt dress code and that kind of prompted us to say, you know, it seems like this issue really isn’t going away and maybe we should bring greater clarity and focus to it.”

Q: What is a sexualized dress code?

“Requirements that are very gendered, so women wear skirts, makeup, jewelry, sometimes even high heels. So the concern for us is that 1) on its face it’s discrimination ... and it’s just somehow normalized in this (hospitality) industry that we have these really rigid gender norms.”

Q: What if an employee chooses to dress in a revealing way?

“For us, that’s fine. We’re really focused on mandatory dress codes. So if a person chooses to wear a particular outfit that they are comfortable with, we don’t believe that that is discrimination.”

Q: Would it be equally wrong to require a male employee to dress in a sexualized fashion?

“Yes ... it’s OK to have dress codes, it’s OK to have uniforms, but they need to have sufficient flexibility such that people can choose to wear something that’s both appropriate from the company’s perspective but also inclusive.”

Q: Why not let businesses decide dress codes in their place of employment?

“That’s precisely the point of the Human Rights Code. The code protects against discrimination even where there might be a business case for discrimination ... The point of the Human Rights Code is to actually be a countervailing influence against, you know, a purely market-driven economy.”

aartuso@postmedia.com