Burger King workers in Barcelona will now be able to grow facial hair after authorities ruled the company's internal policy against beards, moustaches, or stubble went against their constitutional rights.
ADVERTISEMENTBurger King workers in Barcelona will now be able to grow facial hair after Catalan authorities ruled the company's internal policy against beards, moustaches, or stubble went against their constitutional rights.
The region's labour inspectorate also ruled that policies stipulating men wear ties and women wear ribbons amounted to sexual discrimination.
Their decision was made after the local branch of the Workers’ Commission union complained about Burger King’s internal policy.
Burger King’s policy made it mandatory for men to shave off beards, moustaches, and goatees for “sanitary reasons”.
But, for the labour inspectorate, “food hygiene can be equally achieved by more moderate measures that don't go against the fundamental rights of workers”.
Carles Catalá, the union's spokesman, told Euronews he was happy about the outcome and hopes it can be applied to other companies with similar discrimination cases, though he insisted that “people need to make unions aware of their complaint” if they want to see some change since decisions are made at the regional level.
Catalá explained that even though topics that have to do with image and attire “can be considered to be less important than salary or extra hours, they are sensitive topics because they can infringe the constitutional rights of people.”
Burger King did send back a comment to Euronews on this subject.