Home > This Week’s Issue > Seductive Nurse or ‘Illegal Alien’ Costume … Actually, Please Don’t
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By Tresa Baldas
The National Law Journal
October 29, 2009
Companies might want to put out a "do’s" and "don’ts" list for Halloween costumes this year, employment lawyers advise. And it’s not just the naughty nurse or street pimp that employers should ban, the lawyers say, but politically and socially offensive characters as well.
What’s going too far? Try the pumpkin-head Obama. Or the illegal-alien costume, an orange jumpsuit complete with a green card that has been surfacing online in recent weeks, roiling immigration groups and triggering protests. An anti-health-reform patient might also offend some people, particularly if someone carries around a sign that says, "Gimme, gimme, gimme."
"You might set some people off there," warned Steve Miller, of counsel to the Chicago office of Atlanta’s Fisher & Phillips.
Miller is advising employers to send out an e-mail or memo in advance of Halloween reminding employees that they must use good taste and judgment when selecting costumes to wear to work or at the office party. Employees should be careful, for example, in dressing up as the first African-American president or the first Hispanic woman to be named a Supreme Court justice, he said.
Miller advised employers to ban anything that is sexually provocative, carries a political or social message, or is simply inappropriate for interacting with colleagues and clientele. And don’t be afraid to punish the employee
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