A receptionist claims she was sent home from work at a corporate finance company after refusing to wear high heels.
Nicola Thorp, 27, from Hackney in east London, arrived on her first day at PwC in December in flat shoes but says she was told she had to wear shoes with a “2in to 4in heel”.
Thorp, who was employed as a temporary worker by PwC’s outsourced reception firm Portico, said she was laughed at when she said the demand was discriminatory and sent home without pay after refusing to go out and buy a pair of heels…
I have seen nothing to indicate that she was told that she must wear heels to do her job and can only assume that the requirement was cosmetic rather than for any kind of health and safety aspect (steel toe-capped heels, anybody?). On BBC radio she said she was told that all staff must wear them, but when she pointed out a man working at reception without heels she was laughed at – demeaning to her and a somewhat sexist regulation.
Looks bad for PriceWaterhouse Cooper since they are in charge of the safety of employees in their buildings, and publicity about someone being sent away from their office for refusing to wear heels for a job involving standing and walking around a building for nine hours a day – which she said she could not do – will not be in their favour.
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May 11, 2016 at 3:20 pm