High heels row: Government rejects Hackney campaigner’s demand for law change

Sent home: Actor Nicola Thorp

An actor from Hackney who was sent home from her temporary job as a receptionist for not wearing high heels has criticised the government’s decision not to change the law.

Nicola Thorp set up a petition calling for sexist dress codes to be outlawed after her then employer, Portico Corporate Reception Management Ltd, demanded she remove her flat shoes and replace them with heels on her first day of work at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). When she refused, Portico sent her home without pay.

Thorp’s petition attracted over 150,000 signatures and led to a women and equalities select committee inquiry being set up to look into dress codes.

Last Friday, the government issued an official response to the inquiry’s findings. It described current legislation as “adequate” and ruled out any amendments, saying that the Equality Act 2010 offers sufficient “scope for redress”.

But the government accepted the select committee’s recommendation that more work needs to be done with employers, and said its equalities office would be “producing guidance on dress codes in the workplace as a specific response to the Thorp petition and the issues it raises”.

The new advice is expected to be available this summer.

Investigations by various Commons committees discovered that women have been told by their bosses to dress provocatively and wear certain shades of lipstick.

Helen Jones MP, chair of the Petitions Committee, said: “This petition, and our inquiry, have already done a great deal to improve public awareness of the law.

“It is nevertheless very welcome that the Government has accepted our recommendation that it should be doing much more to improve understanding among employers and employees alike, to prevent discriminatory practices in the workplace.

“I very much hope that the next Government will honour the commitments made in the response to our report.”

Maria Miller MP, who headed up the select committee’s inquiry, said: “Equality legislation is not sufficient to achieve equality in practice. This petition, and the committees’ inquiry, have reinforced the need for effective enforcement of legislation and for employers and employees to be aware of their obligations and rights.

“We welcome the commitments made by the government to increasing awareness of those rights, and hope that the next government will monitor how this changes women’s experiences of the workplace.”

Last year, Thorp donated the black shoes she refused to take off at PwC to the Hackney Museum.

Update: 11:57am Wednesday 26 April 2017

In a statement to the Hackney Citizen, a PwC spokesperson said: “As we have said previously, we are sorry that Ms Thorp had a bad experience at one of of our buildings and when we were made aware of the incident, some five months after it happened, we immediately instigated a review of all of our suppliers’ policies. Portico immediately updated its dress code.”