Rich Meneghello’s article “Commentary: Workplace
Appearance Policies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All” was
featured in The Daily Record on September 21, 2015.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided a case that every
employer will need to understand in order to stay on the right side
of federal religious discrimination law. It ruled that retail
clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch violated the law when it
rejected an applicant who was wearing a Muslim hijab, saying she
ran afoul of its appearance policies. Here are some lessons you can
learn from that case to avoid the same fate.
Many people know Abercrombie as a stylish retail clothing
company targeted mostly towards younger customers. What most
don’t know is that Abercrombie requires all of its employees
to comply with a strict “look” policy intended to
exemplify its “classic East Coast collegiate style of
clothing.” For example, sales-floor employees (whom
Abercrombie refers to as “models”) are prohibited from
wearing
