Having to wear a uniform to work isn’t out of the ordinary, especially in restaurants. Cooks are often required to wear chef whites and black pants. Front-of-house staff are often given guidelines about appearance. But a recent CBC story about a Toronto restaurant worker who challenged her employer on its revealing uniform for female servers has attracted public outcry.
In an interview with CBC reporter Rosa Marchitelli, Tierney Angus stated that a new required dress code for Bier Markt employees was introduced in October. Female servers were required to wear revealing dresses with high heels or boots, while male servers were told they could wear jeans, a button-down shirt, and sneakers. Previously, all Bier Markt employees wore black pants and black golf shirts.
“I was upset that I had to squeeze my body into something that small,” Angus told the CBC. “The material is almost bathing suit-like. It is very tight, very skimpy. I went up a size and my boyfriend commented he could see my tailbone through it.”
After the story broke, Bier Markt’s owner Cara Operations Ltd. changed its uniform policy, allowing female staff the option of returning the dress for a full refund and wearing the “unisex option” of jeans and sneakers.
Online reaction has included support for Angus for speaking out to calling out other restaurants that require female front-of-house staff to wear revealing clothing. American-grown chain restaurants, like Hooters and Tilted Kilt, have notoriously required servers to don skimpy clothing while serving mostly male clientele. But other mainstream restaurant chains including Earls (and its accompanying “Earls Girls”), Joey Restaurants, Cactus Club Cafe and Moxie’s Grill & Bar have also been accused of sexualizing its staff.
“As far as restaurants are concerned, it’s generally part of the entertainment industry. Just as food is served for consumption, so are the female servers. There’s a relationship between food and women,” Pamela Sugiman, professor and chair of Ryerson University’s Department of Sociology, says. “I think it’s gotten worse. I think there’s a general backlash against women in society and it’s often reflected in women’s feelings about their bodies.”
Sugiman states that the issue is not limited to the restaurant industry and extends to low-wage workers in retail as well. She says that the majority of people who work in these industries are young and do not believe they have much choice.
“Almost every worker is replaceable, and there’s always another young pretty face they can hire,” Suigman says. “Employees don’t have much power to resist these kinds of rules for how they look and how they dress.”
The sexualization of female servers is also reinforced by societal views about young women. A page on Yelp, a crowd-sourced review website for businesses, is dedicated to finding the “Best Hot Waitress” in Toronto. Earls Kitchen + Bar, ranked in first place, contains user comments, such as “I think that even if the waitresses weren’t smoking hot (and for the most part, fun and cool to boot!) and scantily clad, I’d still go!”
“It’s so much a part of our culture,” Suigman says. “We expect to see beautiful women, young women at these restaurants. I think even if you’re not a heterosexual man, you still expect that to be part of the backdrop.”
While the number of “breastaurants” is growing in Canada, the rules on restaurant worker dress codes are clear. The 2008 edition of Human Rights at Work, a guide produced by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, included a section specifically addressing uniforms. Section 7 states that employers “should be prepared to prove that any sex-linked differences in dress code are bona fide occupational requirements.
“Do not subject female employees to more difficult requirements than male employees, and do not expect them to dress provocatively to attract clients,” the document continues. “It is discrimination based on sex to require female employees to wear high heels, short skirts and tight tops.”
Suigman believes that in order for restaurants to be held accountable, fundamental changes need to happen in the service industry, which may include unionization.
“I think it’s important for everyone, including the workers themselves, to realize they are workers. It’s not a privilege to be an employee in one of these places, whether it be Aritzia, Hooters, or Joeys,” she says. “They are workers and they may be glorified but they should still demand the rights that other works have. The tendency to prey on most people’s desire to feel beautiful, most employers can get away with this because they’re glorifying the job.”
A previous version of this article wrongly attributed the rules on employment dress codes to the Ontario Human Rights Code. The correct attribution is Human Rights at Work, a guide written by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
michelled@nowtoronto.com | @michdas
