Question

Do you believe the government has placed too many restrictions on companies with respect to how much freedom owners have to carry on their business? For example, should companies be allowed to maintain their own hiring policies? Maintain their own dress codes at work? If a company, such as Hooters, requires the wait staff to wear skimpy uniforms is it proper for the courts to order them to hire males? Or if Costco requires their employees to not have visible body art, should the courts order that they be forced to employee someone who violates that policy? What if you owned a company, what standards would you want in place? Would you drug test your employees? Have a dress code?

Answer 1

The main objectives behind government's regulations is to ensure the prevention of employee discrimination on different grounds and biased / differential treatment of particular ( protected ) category of employees in violation with the provisions of constitution and legal  and statutory regulations. This does not mean that the businesses don't enjoy freedom to function the way they like. They can, as long as they are not violating a law or their acts are discriminatory in nature. The comapnies can even discriminate in hiring if they can establish the necessity of employing a person of particular gender, religion or physical attributes ( such as bona fide occupational qualifications). They can maintain their own dress code at work, but they need to provide some leeway and accommodation in certain cases ( such as allowing a follower of a particular religion that obliger him /her to cover his /her head). They can even ask their employees to wear skimpy dresses unless they are above a reasonable limit of obscenity. They can ask their employee to refrain from sporting tatoo or visible body marks and there is nothing wrong in making them look professional.

If I own a company, I would like to maintain policies that offer ample freedom to the employees while ensuring that no statutory regulations, law of land or anti discriminatory provisions. Having said this, a company must also ensure that the freedom is not taken undue advantage of. The policies like drug test and employee background check is essential to ensure that the culture of the organisation can be protected and safety, security and well being of employees is ensured. The dress code is OK , as long as it is under reasonable level of decency and justifies its role in the job of the employee, without putting any employee under disadvantage due to his /her religious beliefs or similar practices.