A woman has reportedly said that she was dismissed from her job at a London TV company for being too good looking.
Emma Hulse said her manager at UNIT TV in Soho told her to leave just five minutes into a freelance shift because she “should be on a catwalk”.
Ms Hulse told the Evening Standard: “We were supposed to finish at 6pm and I got there for 9.30am and when I got there this other runner started explaining to me what I should do.
“Then they send me on a run. Then my agent text me that I’m no longer required.
“I got there and spoke to the line manager and he asked me, ‘are you a model? Are you not doing catwalks, why are you not at the front of house?”
“I was wearing lipstick but from my perspective I was not inappropriate. I was wearing a shirt and trousers. I really didn’t think I looked inappropriate. Then [the manager] took my number, he suggested we go for a drink.”
Ms Hulse said she was “disappointed” to be sent home. “Maybe that company employs plain looking people and maybe if you don’t look that way they don’t take you, maybe I was a distraction,” she said.
“I do camera operating as well, I work for many different companies and no one has sent me home because of the way I look. Especially within a creative agency you should be free to wear what you want.”
The Standard reported that the company accepted that the incident took place and said the manager in question, who had been at the company for less than three months at the time, has since left his role.
Adam Luckwell, owner of UNIT TV told the Standard that there were “a number of things” about the manager that he was not happy with.
“We decided not to continue with the employment and terminated the contract within three months. We felt he was a bad fit for us and some of the things he was doing was not in line with the company’s policy“.
In January, more than 150,000 people signed a petition in support of London receptionist Nicola Thorp, who was sent home from work after refusing to wear high heels.
The 27-year-old arrived at finance company PwC to be told she had to wear shoes with a “2in to 4in heel” and when she refused and complained that male colleagues were not asked to do the same, she was sent home without pay.
Independent.com
