An amendment to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code brings an end to a common practice in the service industry where employees were forced to wear footwear that could pose a health or safety risk.

Effective January 1, 2019, employers will no longer be permitted to make high heels mandatory for servers or bartenders.

“I have heard from many Alberta women in the hospitality industry that this change needs to happen, “ said Christian Gray, Alberta’s Minister of Labour, in a statement released Friday. “It’s clear that forcing women to wear high heels at work is a bad idea.”

“This is an important change that will help create healthy work environments where workers can do their job safely and not be forced to use footwear that creates potential hazards.”

Holly Parks of Vintage Chophouse celebrated the move that she says was overdue.

“It’s fantastic,” said Parks. “For me, personally I’ve been in the industry for 25 years, I’ve grown my career in the industry and I think this is a long time coming. We needed this years and years ago and certainly I think it’s very positive change and it brings awareness to a problem that has been going on for far too long.”

Parks says high heels are uncomfortable for many servers and the footwear can take its toll on backs and feet over time. “Long term back problems are a real thing for these younger girls.”

According to Parks, The Vintage Group has never enforced mandatory footwear for servers and she’s glad to see the move has been adopted province wide.  “For us, it’s always been a no-brainer. It’s really what are you comfortable in and what do you want to work in because the hours are long, the job is hard and we don’t want to see injury or long term health problems for these women.”

Geri-Lynn Ramsay, who has served at Vintage Chophouse for roughly seven years, works in high heels but says that her footwear selection is at her own discretion.

“It’s a choice,” explained Ramsay. “I like to have the option. When I’m working those long days, I like to be able to switch in and out.”

“We work on our feet all day long. We don’t get many breaks. It’s a long shift. Sometimes you’re at 12 hours on your feet, running around.”

The decision to amend Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code to ban mandatory high heels follows similar moves in Ontario and British Columbia in 2017 and in Manitoba in 2018.

With files from CTV’s Kathy Le