2024-03-20 10:20:05
This bill from MP LIOT Olivier Serva wants to put an end to discrimination linked to the texture and hair style of people, whether racialized or not, in the professional environment.
Hide this hair from me that I cannot see. More or less offensive jokes regarding blonde people, taunts regarding redheads or discrimination in hiring once morest racialized people with natural frizzy hair… These practices and prejudices might soon be sanctioned.
This Wednesday, March 20, the Law Committee is examining the bill from the member of the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (Liot) group, Olivier Serva, aimed at penalizing hair discrimination.
“Two out of three black women say they have to change their haircuts to get a job,” notes the elected official from Guadeloupe on our antenna, citing a 2023 study conducted by Dove and LinkedIn in the United States.
According to another study carried out in Great Britain in 2009 by Halo Collective, “one in three blonde women also say that to progress in the company, they must dye their hair brown to appear smarter in the eyes of the employer” , also explains Olivier Serva.
A superfluous text?
In France, the law already prohibits 25 grounds of discrimination at work, including age, sex, state of health, accent, but also specifically physical appearance, of which hairstyle is a part.
Enough to make certain human resources and policy managers think that this text on an additional mention of hair is superfluous.
“Will MPs propose an allowance for bald people?” reacted the liberal think tank Iref.
“France has other problems, infinitely more serious than haircuts and if the number of Afro hair salons is exploding (in Ile-de-France alone there are more than 15,000), This means that hair discrimination must be very rare…”, the research institute still mocks.
In the Labor Code, but also the Penal Code and the General Civil Service Code, the following statement: “no distinction, direct or indirect, can be made because of physical appearance”, already exists.
American inspired
For the spokesperson for the LIOT group, these existing legal provisions are not sufficient to respond to certain discrimination in hiring. Olivier Serva wants to draw inspiration from the “Crown Act” promulgated in 2019 in California to include in the field of criminal repression of discrimination in France, any discrimination or distinction based “in particular the cut, color, length or texture of their hair.”
In the United States, 20 states have already adopted legislation to combat hair discrimination. Clearly, this bill intends to modify the general civil service code, the Penal Code and the Labor Code, in order to include a clarification specifically relating to hair discrimination.
After the “no distinction, direct or indirect, can be made because of physical appearance” already written, the words “in particular the cut, color, length or texture of their hair” would be added.
Oliver Serva cites in particular “Afro-descendants” who suffer this discrimination when hiring and once in office. It is based on the work of influencer and activist once morest hair discrimination, Kenza Bel Kenadil.
“Our hair is professional,” exclaims the young woman in several videos from her Instagram account to more than 256,000 followers.
Wearing natural hair, “lockstwists, braids, afro, red, blond, has an inescapable link with self-esteem”, concludes the Guadeloupean elected official. The text will be discussed before the National Assembly on March 27 and 28.
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