A young woman from Croydon, UK, has been awarded £29,187 (around Rs 31 lakh) in compensation after being unfairly fired for wearing trainers to her job.
Elizabeth Benassi, 20, was fired from Maximus UK Services after three months of employment. She was dismissed because of her footwear. Benassi had begun working at the company in 2022. She claimed she had been unfairly targeted over sports shoes, despite wearing the same as colleagues without anyone raising an issue.
The Croydon tribunal agreed that the recruitment agency wrongfully singled out Benassi for wearing inappropriate shoes to work when it was hardly a violation of the dress code. Benassi argued that her manager treated her like a child, singling her out for this minor breach of the dress code.
The tribunal found her arguments to be sound and added that the company demonstrated “a desire to find fault” and unduly fixated on her appearance while most of her colleagues were about the same age and wore similar shoes.
Maximus UK Services, which provides services to the Department for Work and Pensions, said it had done nothing wrong. The firm told the tribunal that other employees were not treated the same regarding footwear, citing one instance where a staff member was allowed to wear trainers because he had a sore foot. The company was also reported saying that Bengasi was dismissed “due to concerns about her performance.\” This was with a review of three months probationally, after which her contract was terminated.
