Jessica Devnani was excited about the prospect of starting her first summer job at Canada’s Wonderland, but in the end, she found no amusement in the park’s request that she cut her dreadlocks, or find work elsewhere.
“I went in for my interview and they hired me on the spot so a week later I went for my first day of training,” she explained.
When she showed up she was given the bad news — the hair had to go.
“I was angry they didn’t tell me at the interview when they saw my hair,” she adds.
As a private company Canada’s Wonderland is entitled to a hiring policy and they have a rule of no extreme hairstyles.
A spokesperson for the company declined an interview.
“They got my hopes up with the job and then telling me I had to resign,” Devnani complains.
Canada’s Wonderland says it will look into better communicating its hiring policies and Jessica doesn’t plan to take any action against them, but she just hopes it doesn’t happen to somebody else.
Wonderland is entitled to have a hiring policy, but Jessica was hired in spite of any policy that may have been in place.
It was when she showed up for her first day of training that there was a problem.
Sorry Wonderland, but you hired her and letting her go for this reason now is a form of wrongful dismisal (though, legally one can be let go from a job within three months without any reason).
JESSICA, TAKE ACTION!! YOU HAVE AN OPEN AND SHUT CASE!! Wonderland discriminated against you AFTER you were HIRED!
My son also started working at wonderland. His hair was not an issue when he was hired and suddenly when he started work it was an issue. They even told him that if he went to human resources they would cut it for him. He was told that if he did not cut his hair, then he could not come back to work. So he chose not to come back to work