Lingerie Store Employees Protest Bra Sizes on Name Tags
Photo: © Jill Fromer / iStockphoto.com | Illustration: Ryan Monaghan
Employees at Change lingerie stores are required to wear name tags (not the above) revealing their bra size.
So much for Victoria's Secret.
Employees of the Change lingerie chain in Sweden are speaking out against a store policy that calls for them to wear name tags revealing their bra size, The Local reports.
”We have dirty old men coming into the shop looking at my cup size," an anonymous employee told union paper Handelsnytt earlier this year. "Why should everyone get to know that? Guys selling underwear don't have to show their size."
Though management for the Scandinavian store claims that the employees themselves suggested the bra size idea three years ago, the Commercial Employees' Union is threatening to sue over the "demeaning" name tags.
The group argues that the cup-size callouts are discriminatory and break the union's collective agreement. Change, however, dismisses the suggestion.
”I don't get why this would be seen as demeaning in any way," Change CEO Susann Haglund has said. "I am sure there are those that feel that way, but it is completely voluntary to wear a name tag with your cup size."
Not true, says one former employee, who claims mystery shoppers report those who don't wear the tags.
”When you start you get receive a document which states that 'name tag with size is always worn,' so to me that doesn't reflect that it was voluntary," she says. "It isn't great when you're out on [the] town and people greet you with your name and cup size. It feels sort of private."
Yeah, not OK unless your name happens to be Cee Cee or Dee Dee!
Meanwhile, a Harrods employee claims she was forced out for refusing to wear makeup.
