“Wear what the &^%* you want,” proclaims Union Local 613’s website. It’s a pretty accurate description of the Somerset Street restaurant’s non-existent employee dress code.
The restaurant’s management has spoken out against the serving industry’s exploitation of female staff’s sexuality.
“It’s something that always bothered me when I was an employee of the industry,” says Union’s co-owner Ivan Gedz. “Then when I became an owner, it was something I was vehemently opposed to because it’s just disgusting, to be frank.”
Union is a 1920s-themed restaurant and bar serving Southern cuisine and specialty cocktails out of its secret basement speakeasy. The 1920s have long been regarded as a progressive decade for women’s rights, and Union seems committed to upholding that tradition. Since they opened in 2012, Union’s management has encouraged all staff to wear whatever clothes they feel comfortable working in.
Alison McEwen, an Ottawa lawyer who specializes in employment and labour law says that anyone who goes to certain restaurants should be familiar with the way female service staff are often expected to dress.
“When we say ‘discriminatory uniform policy’, what comes to everyone’s mind is women, really, in short skirts and high heels, and being required to wear that and be on your feet for eight hours a day,” she says.
Maddi Cruise has worked in the restaurant industry since she was 15 years old. The Carleton University student says she’s faced frustrating dress code requirements at many of the restaurants she’s served at.
“At a recent serving job, all female servers were required to work in high heel shoes. For me, this was extremely uncomfortable because high heels were not something I wore regularly,” Cruise says.
This kind of dress code violates Ontario human rights guidelines. An employer has to prove that any sex-linked differences in their dress code are legitimate 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 Ontario Human Rights Commission’s workplace guide states.
McEwen says that unfortunately, many servers don’t speak up to proclaim these rights because they aren’t aware they have them.
“One thing about servers as an employment group as a whole is that they are sadly under-informed, and I think it’s partially because of demographics,” McEwen says.
Servers are less likely to research their rights because it usually isn’t their “career” job, McEwen says. Young women are particularly vulnerable to workplace rights abuse by employers and by patrons, she says.
“You’ve got to look not only at the youth, but at the gendered aspect of serving,” she says. “Historically serving has been a female-dominated profession and there’s a certain extent of some employers wanting women to grin and bear inappropriate commentary.”
Union has also taken other measures to create an equitable workplace for its employees. Workers pools their tips and full-time staff receive health benefits.