Women in British Columbia are about to be liberated from “sexism, objectification, bleeding feet and sore knees, hips and backs” — at least when it comes to choosing their own footwear at work.
On Friday, Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver used those words to welcome the news that the provincial government has given the boot to any workplace rule that requires women to wear high heels.
Under the Workers Compensation Act, the province amended the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation to include that “potential for musculoskeletal injury” must be considered in determining appropriate footwear.
"This doesn't say you can't wear high heels," he said in an interview with the Courier. "It's that an employer can't tell you to wear them."
Weaver doesn't want to conjecture publicly why some bosses want their female staff to wear high heels. "I think we all know why but in 2017 I don't think it should be a thing."
Weaver says that in response to the bill he tabled International Women’s Day, “waiters, bartenders, lawyers, people in the retail and hospitality industry wrote in to my office.”
They railed against “archaic” regulations that forced female employees to wear high-heeled shoes.
Even Premier Christy Clark took note on Twitter. “Women shouldn’t have to wear high heels at work. We’ll move to end this,” she tweeted a few days later.
Weaver agrees with the province's decision to use regulation rather than legislation to ban the requirement. He says he worked with Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism, and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour, to come up with the wording for the regulation. "It's a very quick and easy way to deal with it."
While Weaver applauds the change, he said in a press release that “We are very far from an inclusive, gender-equal province. But this is an important step (taken in work-appropriate shoes of our choosing) in the right direction.”
