HMV bans open-toe shoes and extreme body art - AOL Money UK

Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire

Troubled HMV has hit the headlines again - this time for its staff dress policy. The store has told staff they can't wear open-toed sandals, or have 'extreme' body art on display. So will we see an end to the days when record shop workers are expected to be a bit alternative? And can the store stop people from expressing themselves?

Or will this be the latest in a long line of woes for the music retailer?

New rules

The announcement is part of a new 'appearance policy' reported by the Daily Telegraph, which comes into effect on Friday. It requires that men wear blue denim jeans and women blue denim skirts. Both genders will be banned from flip flops and other open-toed shoes; and 'extreme' body art will have to be covered up - only discrete tattoos and piercings will be allowed.

There has been a shocked reaction from a public that is used to seeing some outlandish dress in record shops. However, James Hall, an associate in the employment and pensions team at lawyers Charles Russell told AOL Money that the shop is perfectly within its rights to set a dress code.

He explains: "There is concern from a lot of retailers that their staff ought to look approachable."

He accepts that the image of record shop staff may be more alternative than in many stores, but adds: "Asking them to cover up all tattoos would perhaps be a bit extreme, but they are not doing this, they are talking about extreme body art. They may be a music shop, but they have a classical section, and they have elderly customers, who they want to ensure are comfortable asking for help." He said that the shop has a right to insist that staff are dressed acceptably, look approachable and portray the right corporate image.

An HMV spokesman told the newspaper that this is exactly what the policy aimed to do: "More discreet tattoos and piercings are not an issue so long as people look smart. It goes without saying that we want our work colleagues to feel valued as individuals who can express their personalities, but it's also important that we balance this against the needs and expectations of our customers, who, ultimately, have to be at the heart of everything we do," he said.

Warning

Hall warned, however, that the store needed to take care to enforce the policy sensibly, to avoid falling foul of claims for discrimination. He said: "The key thing is that the policy has to be enforced consistently. Everyone's tattoos are different, and I don't think a tribunal would expect an employer to have something like a rule about a maximum surface area covered by tattoos. However, there has to be a clear structure behind the decisions, they need to be taken at a management level, and the individuals making them need to have training for how to handle them."

It remains to be seen how the policy is enforced, and whether it turns out to be a sensible corporate decision to keep staff smart - or a can of worms waiting to be opened.

HMV can only hope its fortunes change and this goes off without a hitch. It has already seen its sales fall below ?1 billion for the first time in a decade - as consumers go online for music and DVDs.

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Source: http://money.aol.co.uk/2012/10/24/hmv-bans-open-toe-shoes-and-extreme-body-art/

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