Is it legal to deny someone employment because of his/her piercings? Can an employer require that the person remove piercings while at work?
I have a limited knowledge of this subject, but my guess is yes, an employer is completely within there rights to require the removal of piercings. What’s the difference between that and a dress code?
Employers have the right to set reasonable dress codes and require employees to be well groomed and clean, so there’s no reason I can think of why they can’t forbid piercings.
I know Domino’s limits piercings (with jewelry) to women, and only 1 per ear lobe. (You can have more [or men can have them], but with no jewelry in them during working hours.)
Not my area of law, but IAA(NP)L.
In general, employment is “at-will”. That means that management may terminate you for any reason at all.
However, certain things are, as a matter of public policy, forbidden. They include termination or other adverse job action based on religion, sex, and military and jury service obligations. Certain instances of long-term illness in the employee and the family also qualify for certain types of job protection.
There is nothing I’m aware of that protects an employee from being fired, or required under pain of firing, to adhere to a policy that forbids body piercings.
In short - no. If you don’t like it, start your own company, and hire all those talented individuals foolishly discharged from other companies. You’ll make a fortune.
- Rick
I once filled out an application to work for Safeway years ago, but never went through with it. They can refuse you employment for “unsanitary habits” such as scratching your nose or fixing you hair with your fingers - Christ, they even screen you for drugs before you’re allowed to even learn how to stack cans on a shelf! Things like visible body peircings would fall under the dress code, which for the most part can be as ridiculous as an employer wants.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s legal or not, if an employer doesn’t want someone with bodily holes and thingamabobs stuck in them you’d never get past the interview, and you’d never be told why.
Unless the job was grunt work out in the manufacturnig area you’d never be hired by anyone I’ve ever worked for.
If expressing your individuality is paramount then by all means keep your piercings. If getting a job is paramount them get rid of them.
You have to set your own priorities.
It is perfectly acceptable and the courts (somewhat oddly I must say) have backed them up.
For instance there really IS no reason to allow a woman to wear earrings and not a man. Yet the courts have consistantly ruled it is OK to do so.
Many municipalities have stronger equal rights codes so it bears looking into.
Oddly enuff wear I worked last they would hire you with a beard only to tell you AFTER words to shave it off.
Go figure.
The rule isn’t really about what they can do but how it is applied. So long as they apply a NON piercing rule to EVERYONE fairly, (For example men only) they are OK.
Piercings and tattoos are legally considered an “adornment” like clothing. An employer can judge you on those lines just like they can judge your clothing. If something is deemed “inappropriate for the workplace” they can deny employment or terminate employment on those lines.
Showing up one morning with a tattoo could be considered the same as not wearing a corporate uniform or not meeting a minimum dress requirement.
In most U.S. states, as Rick noted, an employer can fire or refuse to hire you just because he had a bad burrito for lunch. Given that in our culture piercings are meant to signal certain things (refusal to conform, subscription to the counter-culture, etc.), then there are actual reasons to not hire someone who is pierced. That’s infinitely more than an employer needs.
–Cliffy, Esq. (Pierced)