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Labor Code
Dress at work: what are the rules?
Publié le 23 juillet 2025 - Mise à jour le 24 juin 2026 - Entreprendre Service Public / (Prime Minister)
Can I wear shorts at my workplace during a heat wave? Can my employer impose an outfit on me? In principle, dress is an individual freedom of the employee. But according to the Labor Code, the employer can impose it if the job justifies it. And the case law also brings nuances. Public Service enlighten you on the subject.
What the Labor Code says
In principle, an employee has the right to dress as he wishes in his workplace.
The Labor Code (Article L. 1121-1) indirectly authorizes the employer to impose clothing constraints on an employee in certain cases where this can be justified: « No one may contribute to the rights of individuals and to individual and collective freedoms of restrictions which are not justified by the nature of the task to be performed or proportionate to the aim pursued ».
One framework decision of the Defender of Rights educates employers on the issue of appearance so that they re-examine their dress codes and practices in compliance with the law of non-discrimination.
For the Defender of Rights, the employee can only be restricted in everything that constitutes his physical appearance, provided that this restriction is decisive for the exercise of his professional activity: « dress codes must be justified by the nature of the positions concerned and legitimate and proportionate to the aim sought. They may be based on health and safety measures or may respond, within certain limits, to image or identification considerations’.
Please note
The Defender of Rights points out that certain practices, considered legitimate in the past, may now appear obsolete and discriminatory in view of the evolution of business and fashion phenomena. The rules must be the same for women and men. Case law also evolves in relation to these considerations (for example, the case of an employee working in a restaurant, who refuses to remove his earrings during service - Court of Cassation, Judgment No. 10-28.213 of 11 January 2012).
The case law
The Court of Cassation, in its judgment of 28 may 2003 concerning the wearing of a bermuda shorts, brings nuances to the freedom to dress in the workplace. It is based on the principle that freedom to dress as one pleases does not fall within the category of guaranteed fundamental freedoms by the Labor Code.
Restrictions have thus been accepted by the case-law when they are dictated by professional requirements. These may hold:
- à hygiene (for example, a butcher whose particularly neglected attire had been deplored by several customers);
- à security : the employer has an obligation to ensure the safety of employees and may therefore be required to provide them with appropriate personal protective equipment and, in some cases, suitable work clothes (in this case, it will have to ensure their effective use);
- to the decency (for example, the wearing of a plain blouse, without underwear, for an accounting assistant, "likely to cause trouble in the company" - Court of Cassation, judgment no. 82-43.824 of July 22, 1986);
- at concern for the company's brand image, in particular when the employee is in direct contact with customers.
Please note
An outfit ban must be justified and relevant. Employers must balance their operational needs with respect for individual rights, through clear communication (for example by involving employees in the development of the dress code), recommends the Defender of Rights.