OK to Send Corrections Officer Home for Violating Dress Code

A corrections officer showed up for work wearing large hoop earrings in violation of the employer’s dress code, which allowed stud earrings only for safety reasons. His supervisor asked him to remove the earrings. He refused and so the employer sent him home without pay. The officer filed a grievance, claiming he was inappropriately disciplined. The adjudicator concluded that the employer’s actions were administrative, not disciplinary. The officer was in violation of the reasonable dress code. If he’d removed the hoop earrings when asked, he could’ve worked his shift. Instead, he chose not to and so wasn’t allowed to work. There was no evidence the employer let other workers wear hoop earrings or that there was a notation of discipline in his record, added the adjudicator [Purtell v. Deputy Head (Correctional Service of Canada), [2014] PSLRB 15 (CanLII), Feb. 7, 2014].