Is all clothing allowed the office? Take safety vest when go out

In recent days, it's hot, very hot. And from Lille to Bordeaux via Paris, Bourges, temperatures are not ready to go down. A real torture for employees who would like to give up tie suit or costume, especially when their offices are not air conditioned. But have we the right, in France, to come in tank top, shorts and flip-flops, or safety vest on outside?

If no legal text formally prohibited, no not permitted. Freedom to dress as we want it is not a fundamental freedom. This means that this "freedom" is provided in some basic documents as the Constitution.

The employer is not true, unless specific job, all rights on the way its employees are expected to come to work. Article L1121-1 of the Code stipulates that: "No one can bring to human rights and individual and collective liberties that are not justified by the nature of the task and proportionate to the aim pursued".

Clearly, the employer may restrict freedom of dress for reasons of safety or contacts with customers or image. For example, a worker must wear his reflective vest and safety shoes, a stewardess, uniform supplied thereto and a notary clerk will avoid flip flops and shirt.

So, an employee who is not working with clients can he, he, come dressed as he wants? Not quite! In 2001, a technical office, who worked out of contact with customers, was dismissed because it was allowed to come to work in shorts. The Supreme Court agreed with the company. Customers are therefore regularly in local man was in indirect contact with them, which could harm the company's image. And it needs to wear reflective clothes when they need to go out.

The ideal is to check the company's internal regulations. Indeed, if an outfit is expressly prohibited, it must have been submitted to the staff representatives and view the premises. But to avoid any odd, the ideal is for a man to come in elegant but casual attire like a suit without a tie, linen trousers, and a slightly loose shirt. The women, they, more spoiled for choice. Once their holding remains suitable, of course. The mini-skirt in the office, it can get messy.