Nicola Thorp has already won widespread support for the cause, after she revealed she was sent home without pay on her first day at a new job after turning up in flat shoes, and refusing to go out and buy a new pair of shoes.
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“It’s still legal in the United Kingdom for a company to require female members of staff to wear high heels at work against their will”, the petition states.
A receptionist says she was sent home from work when she refused to wear high heels.
Portico shared its dress code – including guidance that women should wear plain shoes with heels – with Thorp when she signed up with them over two years ago. PwC later clarified that the dress code was not a PwC policy and that it was their outsourced reception firm Portico’s appearance guidelines that Ms Thorp had breached.
“With immediate effect all our female colleagues can wear plain flat shoes”, Portico said.
A company that sent home a woman from her temp job for not wearing high heels has changed its policy.
“I said, ‘You know, I don’t see why what I’m wearing is going to affect my job in any way, ‘” Thorp told the BBC.
She then spoke to friends about what had happened, and after posting on Facebook realised that other women had found themselves in the same position.
PwC said the dress code issue involving Ms Thorp at its Embankment offices last December was “not a PwC policy”.
Under current United Kingdom employment law, employees can legally dismiss employees who contravene an organisation’s dress code if the employees have been given warnings, and enough time to comply with the dress code. Apart from the debilitating factor, it’s the sexism issue. We were first made aware of this matter yesterday (10 May), some five months after the event.
“There are some companies who think that the way a woman should look in a corporate environment is to be two to four inches taller and to change the way that I suppose they carry themselves”, said Ms Thorp.
The firm said female workers could now choose to wear flats if they wanted to.
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Portico has responded to the BBC, saying that they are reviewing their guidelines on how employees dress. “We are now in discussion with the suppliers about the policy”, PwC said on Wednesday.
