BC Makes It Illegal to Force High Heels on Workers

In trending news, women in British Columbia, Canada will now have more freedom when it comes to the shoes they wear to work. Because on Friday, after much debate and urging from the public and human rights activists, the government in British Columbia has banned employers from forcing their workers to wear high heels. It's no secret the toll that high heels can wreak on feet and bodies. High heels can cause bleeding, affect your posture, cause toenails to fall off and so much more. In Canada, the footwear debate has been brewing in the country for some time now. There have been petitions that have received more than a thousand signatures, and the controversy forced Earls, a popular restaurant, to change their dress code policy after photos of one of their worker's with bloody feet went viral.

In trending news in March, the leader of the BC's Green Party, Andrew Weaver, filed a new bill that focused on the gender inequality of footwear in the workplace that would prevent employers from setting certain footwear and other requirements based on gender, gender identity, or gender expression. The government didn't accept Andrew Weaver's bill, but they did make changes to the provinces existing workplace regulations, and Weaver did get thanked by the government for his efforts. The government stated that wearing high heels in the workplace were a safety hazard for workers as the shoes cause the wearer, at times to shred their feet and they also increase the worker's risk of falling. To help with the new change, the government amended the existing footwear regulation in the province's workers' compensation act. The new amendment ensures that workplace footwear is of construction, design, and shoe material that will allow the worker to safely perform their work. Furthermore, by the end of April WorkSafeBC, the province's workers compensation board, will draft a new guideline to support the new amendment. And in trending news, the province's labor minister, Shirley Bond, said that she expects all employers to now recognize this very clear signal that forcing someone to wear high heels at work is completely unacceptable.

And while high heels can often make the outfit, it seems that for many that comes with much suffering. High heels have the stigma of being bad for both health and comfort, but this certainly doesn't stop women from wearing the shoes occasionally and for some daily. Women often make sacrifices for fashion, especially for foot fashion. Studies have shown that high heels can be costly in more ways than one way and they take their toll on your hips, spine, knees, feet and ankles while altering both your posture and gait. Some of the things that wearing high heels can do include increasing hip and knee pain. Walking in high heel shoes increases the amount of weight that is put on your knee joints, as women usually bend their knees more while they are walking in the shoes. This can cause strained knee joints along with hips, and prolonged use of high heels can lead to fractures and trapped nerves, according to Medical Daily. High heels can also increase a person's risk of getting osteoarthritis. In a study from the Journal of Orthopaedic Research found that when someone wears high heels that are three and a half inches or higher they can increase your lifetime risk of getting osteoarthritis.

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