Last month News.com.au reported on the practice of fashion retailers ‘pressuring’ employees to wear latest season trends without adequate financial compensation.

One of the employees interviewed for the piece, Klara Kalocsay, claims she was reprimanded for not wearing the right ‘season’ shoes while working at shoe store Wittner. Fashion Channel caught up with Klara, who has since moved to another retailer that she wishes to keep anonymous.

Klara, who was a Wittner customer before becoming an employee, says store management expected her and other staffers to buy new clothing “every season” in store. “When they decided there was a new season colour, or when a shoe was sent from the store to a sale store, you could no longer wear that style to work.”

This caused trouble for Klara, who was working at a "regular" Wittner store as well as a "sale" Wittner store. “One day I got confused about which store I was going to, wore old season shoes to the regular Wittner store and was reprimanded by my manager, and was told to buy a new season pair of shoes before I went on the floor because I wasn't allowed to wear sale stock in that store.”

“I understand that every industry requires some sort of dress code, and that employees need to buy their own clothes for that, but if I worked a corporate job, at least I would be able to choose what I would buy, and where from.”

The owner of Wittner, Peter Wittner, says it isn’t a “requirement” that staffers wear the company’s shoes while working. “We would naturally prefer our staff to wear Wittner shoes… Having said that, it is not a requirement by us of them (employees) to have to wear shoes, to have to wear a particular uniform.”

The incident involving Klara, Peter says, was the first of its type involving Wittner. “I’ve been in this role for 17 years, and it’s the first time we’ve had an incident of that nature that I am aware of. Maybe it’s been presented to our regional managers who report to me, but it is the first time I’ve seen fit to have to requalify what the company’s stance and policy is relative to that. I was unaware of any issues or concerns.”

Since departing Wittner, Klara has spoken to friends who also work in the retail industry, and it seems her story isn’t a one-off.

“(I was) told it was a common practice to make staff buy their own uniforms to wear at work. Because I had been lucky with my first retail job — where they actually treated us correctly and gave us a uniform allowance to spend in store — I was pretty naive to it all.

“They all agreed that to get around the legality of it, their companies often used words like ‘prefer’ and ‘encouraged’ to explain staff uniform policy. But everyone who works in retail knows: if you don't follow the uniform rules, you won't have a job for much longer.”

Klara says she would have “felt more comfortable if the company had allowed us to have, say, one base pair of shoes for free and then if you wanted others then you had to pay for them with your discount. I feel that is a reasonable system.”

The Lane Cove, Sydney, resident is still working in the retail sector, with her new place of employment offering a much friendlier working atmosphere. “I feel that my current company understands that if they want you to look a certain way and represent their brand correctly, they need to be reasonable in what they request. They know that by supplying their staff with uniforms to wear while working, we will not only look better, but will also be happier knowing that our pay can go toward things that we actually want to spend it on."

Do you have any experiences, positive or negative, on retail industry dress codes? Tell us below.