WHEN MEN WEAR DREADLOCKS TO WORK Department of Correctional Services v POPCRU [2012] 2 BLLR 110 (LAC)

The inclusion of constitutional rights within the ambit of the employment relationship raises new tensions between the enforcement of an employee’s right to gender equality, religious and cultural freedoms and an employer’s right to engage in free economic activity. The employer, in seeking to increase its productivity and efficiency, may insist on standards of uniformity in the manner in which employees dress to work. The employee, on the other hand, might find the insistence of these norms or uniformities in conflictwith his/her right to equality and/or religious or cultural freedoms. In this case, the courts were faced with the task of reconciling these tensions between the Department of Correctional Services and some of its employees. This note looks at the manner in which the Labour Court ([2010] 10 BLLR 1067; (2010) 31 ILJ 2433 (LC) and Labour Appeal Court dealt with the issue.