A sales person at the Douglas cosmetics store on the Nieuwstad in Leeuwarden was reassigned to the store’s stockroom after she began wearing a headscarf to work.
According to the Leeuwarder Courant, a regular customer of the store noticed that the employee was no longer on the work floor and inquired to the store about her status. The customer was informed that she has been relocated to work in the store’s stockroom because she had begun wearing a headscarf. The employee in question reportedly had not previously worn a headscarf to work.
The customer posted about the company’s decision on Facebook and received thousands of responses. The post appears to have been taken down and access to the Douglas Leeuwarden Facebook page also appears to have been limited.
The Leeuwarder Courant reports that a representative for Douglas in the Netherlands initially responded to the post, but ultimately deleted their own message. The post explained that the company’s employee dress code forbids sales people from wearing clothing that expresses any “political, philosophical or religious sentiment”.
UPDATE: Friday, 9:30 a.m, 18 May
Douglas cosmetics stores across the Netherlands will change their employee dress code after uproar about a Leeuwarden employee being reassigned to the stockroom because she wears a headscarf.
The company had cited its current policy, which forbids staff from wearing clothing with any political, religious or philosophical messages. But the company has now decided to update its dress code following an overwhelmingly negative online response to the decision.
Omrop Fryslân reports that Douglas says that the decision was regrettable and that they are taking the online comments seriously. “Our dress code was never intended to offend anyone. Our stores are for everyone!” The cosmetics store went on to say that it was high time to update its dress code, but they did not specify what that would entail.
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