A supermarket checkout girl was sent home and warned she faces the sack from her job at Asda after dying her hair – PINK.
Carol Shore, 52, dyed her hair the bright colour to celebrate the 75th birthday of mother – whose favourite colour is pink.
But Carol, who works four days a week, was shocked when she was sent home after a manager told her the new colour was against ”company policy”.
Officials at the store in Newton Abbot, Devon, ruled that pink was an ”unnatural” colour and Carol faced the sack if she refused to dye it back to her natural blond.
But Carol was determined to keep the funky style and has now reached a compromise – after agreeing to wear a HAT.
She said: ”I was in the canteen having a break when my section leader came up to me and asked to have word with me.
”I said ‘do you want me to go home?’ and she said ‘yes’ and to come back when it has washed out. I said ‘that’s ‘next week then’.
”I think it’s really silly. If there had been complaints about me not being able to do my job as a result of my hair colour then I could understand it.
”It is something I have done since I was 26. It was my mother’s 75th birthday and I went to see her in Manchester. I did it because she likes it.”
Carol eventually agreed a compromise with the store and has was allowed to return to work on Tuesday – if she wore an Asda trilby.
She added: ”I went in because I need the money even thought it’s against my principles. I wore a white trilby like they wear in the bakery.
”A lot of people who know me were asking me why I was the only one wearing a hat, so in one way it has got more attention.”
Supermarket manager Steve Lehan said it was store policy that workers did not dye their hair ”unnatural colours”.
He said: ”It is our policy that colleagues should avoid dyeing their hair unnatural colours, but we do understand our colleagues are individuals and we don’t want to deny them the chance to express themselves outside of work.
”As a compromise, Carol has suggested she wears a hat to cover up the bright colours while she’s on the shop floor.”