"Girl sacked from job for her dreadlocks" link

Goge · May 2, 2008

Girl Sacked from Job for Her Dreadlocks

Youth sacked for sporting dreadlocks

Richmond Hill Apr 30, 2008 05:49 PM
Hair costs student job
By: Caroline Grech, Staff Writer

Instead of greeting thousands of visitors to Canada’s Wonderland over the next few months, one Richmond Hill teenager is hitting the classified section in search of another job. Jessica Devnani,18, was hired to work at the theme park for the summer, but when she showed up for her first day of training two weeks later, she was told she didn’t fit the park’s appearance standards.

When she went to get her photo ID Saturday, a human resources staffer told her her dreadlocked hair wouldn’t work. She was initially hired to run one of the games. Given the option of either getting rid of the dreadlocks or resigning, she resigned immediately.

“I’m pretty upset. I don’t want my job back, but I want people to know this happened,” the first-year Ryerson University student said.

A list of the park’s appearance standards is on its website and, when it comes to hair, the policy bans “extreme hair styles, unnatural colour and beads”.

But Ms Devnani doesn’t think her dreadlocks fall into the extreme category.

“When you think of extreme, you think of mohawks, not dreadlocks,” Ms Devnani said.

During the school year, she works at the Air Canada Centre, where there’s never been a problem with her appearance.

“At the ACC, you’re dealing with prestigious business people and I can work there. But in a park dealing with kids and families, I can’t work there?” Ms Devnani said.

She is not sure what she will do for the summer now, but is hopeful she will find something else.

The park’s dress code is set by upper management and is the same dress code in effect across the 11 other parks in the United States and five water parks owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, said Canada’s Wonderland spokesperson Dineen Beaven.

“We have 4,000 seasonal employees and we strive for a professional look for all our employees,” she said.

Upon a job offer, employees are given an appearance standards agreement form, which goes into more detail about the expectations, Ms Beaven added.

“It is explained to them that we have a very stringent dress code,” Ms Beaven said.

Ministry of Labour program information officer Lori Barton said the issue doesn’t violate the Employment Standards Act. That act deals with issues such as overtime pay, holiday pay and the limit of hours on a work week.

“An employer does have the right to decide how you dress and how you keep your hair,” Ms Barton said.

A complaint can be made to the Ontario Human Rights Commission if it is related to specified grounds such as race or religion, said Afroze Edwards, a communications officer with the commission.

For example, if Ms Devnani was of the Rastafarian religion, it could be viewed as a violation of her human rights if she had to keep her hair like that for religious purposes.
Click to expand...

My dad showed this to me as I walked in today. Its right on the front page of my local free newspaper. Horrible and ridiculous. "appearance standards" my ass.

JAH shoo ah · May 2, 2008

If I owned a place of business, I would have appearance standards too. Not to 'get down on their level' or anything, but if you had the typical short, neat, and clean-cut hair and your clothes were ironed and all that jazz... I'd hire you just so I could fire you for being of the mass produced type. I wouldn't want to you to confront my customers with the fake society-taught personality you've become accustomed to. I like real down-to-earth people... no matter where I go.

Now I can't decide if this post (above) is meant to show that people stand up for what they believe in, or that corporate has every avenue of 'thinking outside the box' closed off.

sheepydaisy · May 3, 2008

I don't get how it's only a violation of human rights if the person is Rastafarian, surely that's discrimination in itself?

LiquidSoul · May 3, 2008

I have heard of this happening to other people. I would not want to work for a company anyways, who is more concerned about my hairstyle than the quality of work I do. That just shows these people are narrow-minded and not people I would respect or want to work for.

And I think it is actually discrimination too. To some people it is just a hairstyle, but too others, it has religious or spiritual importance. If somebody doesn't like my dreads, then that means they don't like me, because that is who I am. Babylon always trying to bring us down, but we must rise above..

Log in or Sign up

"Girl sacked from job for her dreadlocks" link

Goge Member

JAH shoo ah Member

sheepydaisy Member

LiquidSoul Member

Log in or Sign up

"Girl sacked from job for her dreadlocks" link

Goge Member

JAH shoo ah Member

sheepydaisy Member

LiquidSoul Member

Useful Searches