Heels in the Workplace

Heels in the Workplace

The Trade Union Congress (or TUC) has today called for women to be allowed to wear sensible footwear in the workplace. According to The Times, The TUC stated that in order to preserve health and safety, risk assessments should be drawn up regarding professional footwear, claiming that some women were forced to wear heels as part of their professional dress code.

According to Lorraine Jones of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, women wearing high heels are made more susceptible to long term health risks such as knee damage, corns and bunions and as a result, they are simply not appropriate for work.

A worrying statistic put forward by Ms Jones is that ,“Two million working days are lost every year through lower-limb and foot related problems”. This would therefore seem to be a matter that needs addressing.

Women walk differently in heels than they do so in flat shoes.  In view of this, clearly women wearing heels are going to be more vulnerable to injury as the angle of their feet and the support for their heel is not the same as provided for by flat shoes, hence the odd sprained ankle on the dance floor on a Saturday night.

Let’s give an example:

If Jane were to walk across a wet floor wearing high heels the chances are that she would be much more likely to fall and injure herself than if she was wearing flat shoes. Jane may fall in either circumstance of course, but the heels are likely to mean that her foot or knee bend in an unnatural direction and because the weight distribution across the heel is not even this could exacerbate her injuries.

Most of the companies identified as culpable for forcing their employees to wear inappropriate football have denied the claims of the TUC.  A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: “Some wear heels to and from the plane but change into flat shoes on board for health and safety reasons. You can’t run in a heel, and you’re not permitted to go down the emergency slides in a heel either.”

It appears that the issue of inappropriate footwear needs looking at and certainly employers undertaking risk assessments on this agenda seems like a step in the right direction to safeguarding their employees’ health and therefore can only be a good thing. However, as most companies already insist they do not require the wearing of high heels by women as part of their dress code, it appears to be a matter of choice for the individual as to whether they wear them  and therefore perhaps the responsibility should lie with the individual rather that the employer.