• Sweden edition
Society

Bra-size name tag 'outrage' headed to court

Published: 17 Jan 12 16:16 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/38556/20120117/

A complaint from a former lingerie shop employee upset at being forced to wear a name tag displaying her bra size has prompted a Swedish union to file a discrimination lawsuit against the company that runs the store.

In November last year, the shop assistant complained that she was uncomfortable displaying her bra size during her shifts at the Gothenburg outlet of Scandinavian-owned lingerie company ‘Change’.

Following the complaint, the Commercial Employees' Union (Handelsanställdas förbund - Handels) announced on Tuesday it was filing a lawsuit demanding the company pay 300,000 kronor ($43,410) in compensation to the former employee.

“We don’t feel that it’s any help to see the size of someone’s breasts. We don’t see the connection at all,” the union’s press secretary Kristina Jogestrand told The Local.

“You can be a confident, secure woman without having to show the size of your breasts for all to see.”

The lawsuit argues that requiring employees to display their bra sizes is a breach of discrimination laws and the union's collective wage agreement.

“Our union member has experienced something offensive and discomforting in the wearing of such badges. For her, bust size is deeply personal,” union spokesperson Jannika Fahlander said in a statement.

In addition to compensation for the disgruntled employee, the union is also seeking 100,000 kronor from the company for what the union argues is a breach of the collective agreement.

The bra-size name tags, which displayed both the employee’s bust circumference and cup size, had been introduced to the company three years ago to aid customers by showing them what size might be right for what body shape.

The company claims that the staff members wear the tags voluntarily.

The previous employee claims it was a rule, however, and worked for the company for 18 months before reading her rights, contacting the union, and getting the matter off her chest.

Oliver Gee (news@thelocal.se)

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17:29 January 17, 2012 by Decedo
Bra sizes displayed on their name tag? This is outrageous! Someone please tell me where this store so I can observe this for myself.
17:39 January 17, 2012 by RobinHood
Erin Brokovitch served up chromium tainted water taken from poisonous wells to PG & E lawyers who said it was safe. They didn't drink it, and they lost their case.

Will lawyers representing Change wear tags that reveal their breast and penis sizes until this case is resolved? It would be interesting if someone asked them to.

Will posters here who agree with Change, please share with us their breast and/or penis sizes (accurately if you dare!) so we might learn a little more about you.
18:45 January 17, 2012 by zooeden
It is of bad taste, by the way, nice PIC!!! :D
18:57 January 17, 2012 by Rap43
Good for the union!

Bra... faktiskt....
19:30 January 17, 2012 by Abe L
So make it part of the agreement for new employees and fire the current ones. Or if the discrimination charges stand just ask all employees, guys included to wear such a badge. If it helps their employer make money it helps them, I don't get why people object over things that really don't matter.

For guys size matters, for breasts there are numerous other criteria.
20:40 January 17, 2012 by dizzymoe33
@ Abe L

Size matters also when it comes to Penis sizes so grow up. Lets see the men walk around with their Penis sizes on their name tags along with their breast size. So stupid!!
22:26 January 17, 2012 by Da Goat
seeing as it is a lingerie shop it probably is a good idea as long as it is indeed voluntary other wise people will probably have to ask the question anyhow!

it is both a good and a silly idea .......a picture is worth a thousand words (example)....but it does seem a little privacy invasive!

if some employees have the tag then the ones that do not will be asked or enquired about from others ...so voluntary is kind of moot really!

on the other hand these shops tend to be small so not so many employees so there is not much variety of assistants to choose from so the size tags are probably redundant/useless anyhow.
22:50 January 17, 2012 by JulieLou40
I think it was a ridiculous, disgusting practice, and good on the employee for taking them to task about it. Talk about invasive!
23:16 January 17, 2012 by mkdh
ofcourse its a wrong thing for the company to force the girl on wearing it, but its obvouse that she,s seeking money fromthe company more than that she feels her privecy is violated, i thing if a woman doesn,t want to do what she think she woudn,t do it from the first place ,may she enjoyed wearing it too, who knows?
00:49 January 18, 2012 by Puffin
Totally disgusting invasion of privacy - good the company are being taken to court
11:04 January 18, 2012 by bobbysingh
I agree with RobinHood, you said it well. I see no reason to wear a tag displaying the bra size!!! This company must be taught a lesson, else, today they might start with the bra size and tomorrow would demand to wear the panty size and then someday ask their staff for even more !!!

For advertising and marketing purpose, if a model is arranged to wear the lingerie and display its personality to prospect buyers is one thing, wearing a bra size on the name tag makes no sense at all!!! May be this company was looking for some negative publicity to bring up their brand name.
12:16 January 18, 2012 by shahislam
The funny faces of Ahmaddinajad's advisers will be serious by surprises from other things not wars.

Mullahs, please note the following facts:

Obama took office in 2008 with a negative US coffer balance-sheet and none of his policies are failing.

Let him and his good and clearly visible guys to lead all the nations at least for another decade and America will surely become a rich and happy nation again.

Not to be worried on too many men-made issues at one time, they are less troubling than imagined because only monetary greed is the reason and we can wipe clean the accounting bill board to have a fresh start.

Even if lifting border and Canadian oil supply can be delayed for a while. We need to try every avenue to find instant solutions to issues at hand. There will never ever be any shotage of natural resources on earth under the solar system.

***Doesn't matter how hard the greed-blind businessmen try to monopolize Internet related products, these dumb, uncrupulous profiteers will fail like super idiots. It's not that easy oil and monopoly gas pump type business and the way they are still stealing money everyday from ordinary people's pockets. Internet will eventually rescue global public and help stop theivery of emirs and kings!

***Fear of wars, nuclear threats ctc. are idiots reality -as seen by the newly emerging young generation of collective global public. Time for old, dumb heads to retire from politics!

*** Have to find new ways and forget about copy right things of the past century. Old dreams are unrealistic in new digital world.

Obama took office in 2008 and none of his policies has failed.

Let him and his good and clearly visible guys to lead all the nations at least for another decade and America will surely become a rich and happy nation again to be followed by all the other nations in the world.

Not to be worried on too many men-made issues at one time, they are less troubling than imagined because only monetary greed is the reason and we can wipe clean the accounting bill board to have a fresh start.

Even if lifting border and Canadian oil supply can be delayed for a while. We need to try every avenue to find instant solutions to issues at hand. There will never ever be any shotage of natural resources on earth under the solar system.

No wise man is worried about colors of skins because we are same human race and one mankind on this globe.

Shahislam
12:33 January 18, 2012 by DAVID T
I hate these sort of women - why did she not say anything on her first day of work - it took her 18 months to all of a sudden not like it - no one forced her to take the job and now she's trying to get 300,000 sek for something that didn't bother her for 18 months. How many Bra's will the company have to sell to make 300,000 sek? I hope she loses the case and then should be made to pay the company 300,000 sek.
13:12 January 18, 2012 by Corvinus
Personally I'm amazed that the employee of a lingerie shop is so prudish about her boobs. She probably has to fumble around with 20+ pairs a day when doing bra fittings or similar. If this is such a personal matter to her why does she choose to be involved in that field of employment? I fail to see how asking their employees to wear a label showing the size of their clothing is discriminatory, all staff members are asked (asked, not told) to do that same thing. If it was a case of "Hey you with the big tits over there, we'd like you to wear this label", but the chick behind the counter with the ironing-board chest didn't have to I can see there's a problem. But this wasn't the case. Sounds to me like gold-digging as David T rightly points out.
02:32 January 19, 2012 by maxbrando
Why would the men have to disolay their penis size? If the women have to display their bra size, then the men should display their bra size as well. If the guys have to display their penis size, is it just length or does circumference count as well? If they do, then the women need to display their clitoris size.

God, I get a headache thinking about all this fairness.
05:50 January 19, 2012 by volvoman9
@shahislam..... Say what? Please try to stay on task.
16:16 January 19, 2012 by RobinHood
Sadly, none of the posters here supportive of Change saw fit to tell us their breast and/or penis size. Clearly, Abe, David and Corvinus have something to be ashamed about - apart from their hypocracy.
17:21 January 19, 2012 by shahislam
Leave religions at home. Biological brother is more important than religious brother. To your brother: Ahmedinajad, respect Obama and try to learn about greatness of leadership from him and send those toy-drones as smaller version to Israeli businessmen and scientists that wants to kill your scientists! No dumb head is now capable of making the real big ones, as they failed to kill single heads like Saddam, Gaddafi, Laden etc.

The better part of lesson is here:

In the Cosmos nothing changes but power and monetary greed of few guys on earth have created a artificial reality, therefore, global public, all you need is have fun watching dumb operators of Governments except current US administration and do not worry at all!

It's your understanding and awareness of facts that will make the difference. One major fact is: when North and South -America will increase its oil and natural gas productions to a level- only to export (not importing one drop of oil) and Middle Eastern thugs can no longer control oil production, oil price will drop. The more we burn oil and other energy sources, the more nature will produce those under and above surface but the artificially controlled and maintained crisis is caused only by greed blind rulers of hereditary styled ownership of lands.
22:51 January 19, 2012 by Global1
Why some people keep talking about penis size? Is anybody asking these girls the diameter of their vagina? If I was working in a clothing shop and was asked to wear a badge with my shirt or underwear size, I would. It is not a private issue, everybody can see how tall/short or fat/slim someone is, matching it with a clothe size is just a reference. Girls: I can see how big your breast are! And I am going to use them as reference when buying underwear for a woman, if you think it is less embarrassing if I go to you and ask "I am buying a bra for a girl about your size, can you help me?", it is ok for me too. But don't make a big deal about such small issue, and don't include penises in the equation, it is not about it.
05:05 January 20, 2012 by Jeff10
Well, yes Global 1, that's a good point. Plus, penis size isn't as obvious under clothes as is bra size under a woman's top (barring padding, of course). If men were required to wear such a tag, likely, such an establishment would find that it has employed only the most well-endowed gents. Of course, the store then could implement an inspection policy to ensure that all gents' tags are accurate. This policy would be followed by lawsuits by women who were denied jobs as penis-size inspectors, solely because of their gender.
23:11 January 20, 2012 by dratman
We men do not have a garment fitted to our penis size. I have heard it said that it requires some expertise to fit a bra properly to match a customer's particular breast sizes and shapes. I can understand that, but just imagine the difficulty of doing a fitting for penis size! Now that would be a difficult job.
21:02 January 21, 2012 by Philscbx
They simply lack intelligence with personal tags, when mannequins would work perfect with internal LED's.

Some in charge have very little brains.

We'd have a clue looking in their eyes to get help.

The price we pay not having all info on Phone, shopping.
15:59 January 23, 2012 by Svensksmith
Yes, I'd like a 34 extra long please.
07:05 January 24, 2012 by entry
It has already been previously mentioned that purchasing a proper fitting bra is difficult and largely due to consumer ignorance. Men's clothes that are not explicitly labeled with neck, chest, sleeve length, waist and inseam are very difficult for me to purchase here in Sweden.

The gimmick of having salespersons/showroommodel might be one that works for that store and its' customer base. I am difficult to fit from head to toe. If I saw a salesperson my size walking around a store with a garment that tickled my fancy indicating the size I might be more inclined to purchase it.

Joining a company with a non-smoking policy and crying discrimination because you can't light up on your many many breaks seems to have a parallel here.

Don't shop or work at that shop if you object to their business practices. Do not expect your employer to change their previously stated business model because you have arrived. Give your gift of employment to some other fool company.
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