Af­ter years of com­plaints from cit­i­zens, the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion will im­ple­ment a new, in­clu­sive Client/Vis­i­tor Dress Code Pol­i­cy for gov­ern­ment of­fices.

It will take ef­fect from Jan­u­ary 15.

The new pol­i­cy will al­low for slip­pers or san­dals to be worn by vis­i­tors to gov­ern­ment of­fices, as well as pants or skirts no high­er than mid-thigh. Min­is­ter Allyson West con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that mem­bers of the pub­lic can al­so wear sleeve­less or arm­less tops.

How­ev­er, the new dress code does not ap­ply to schools, po­lice sta­tions, courts, or hos­pi­tals. It al­so will not ap­ply to any­one try­ing to take a pho­to for a gov­ern­ment-is­sued ID like a pass­port or dri­ver’s per­mit.

In Jan­u­ary 2022, Arou­ca cater­er Al­li­son Skin­ner-Bac­chus draped her­self in a cur­tain she had in her ve­hi­cle when she was barred from en­ter­ing the Trea­sury Build­ing for wear­ing a sleeve­less dress. Her sto­ry went vi­ral on Face­book and gained na­tion­al at­ten­tion.

Around that time Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine wiped out the decades-old pol­i­cy in To­ba­go with a sim­ple memo. But at the time, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Allyson West said an up­date to the dress code was not high on the Gov­ern­ment’s agen­da.

The up­dat­ed dress code was made with­out much fan­fare, just a press re­lease from the min­istry. But when news spread that there was a new pol­i­cy, the min­istry’s web­site was briefly in­ac­ces­si­ble due to, no doubt, cu­ri­ous cit­i­zens.

The Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­istry said there was a need for a dress code that aligns with the prin­ci­ples of fair­ness, de­cen­cy, re­spect for cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty, clar­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy, as well as safe­ty.

The min­istry said the pol­i­cy was guid­ed by pub­lic feed­back on sev­er­al key is­sues in­clud­ing the de­nial of ser­vice, non-align­ment of dress code poli­cies in of­fices across the Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (GoRTT), as well as re­search on glob­al trends to­wards a more re­laxed dress code.

“We have lis­tened and com­plet­ed the re­search to en­sure that a more in­clu­sive, cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive pol­i­cy is in­sti­tut­ed. The fo­cus is on eq­ui­table treat­ment, mu­tu­al re­spect and safe­ty, as well as on pro­vid­ing, and not deny­ing ser­vice,” West said.

“We al­so in­tend to en­sure cus­tomer-ser­vice train­ing to staff in the com­ing months. Our pri­or­i­ty is to our Con­sti­tu­tion and the Vi­sion 2030 promise of ‘De­liv­er­ing Good Gov­er­nance and Ser­vice Ex­cel­lence’. And we in­tend to gain your feed­back, as we move for­ward in­to a new era of pub­lic ser­vice ex­cel­lence.”

In an im­me­di­ate re­sponse, PSA Pres­i­dent Leroy Bap­tiste said he agreed with the new pol­i­cy.

“I think it’s a pos­i­tive step in a pos­i­tive di­rec­tion. How­ev­er, once there is a rule, there’s a pos­si­bil­i­ty of non­com­pli­ance. And, that is where I am see­ing that cus­tomer ser­vice rep is pro­tect­ed from hav­ing to take a po­si­tion be­cause if some­one says no, I’m not do­ing it, that pol­i­cy pro­vides for that to just take it to the next lev­el,” Bap­tiste said.

New dress code

- Peo­ple should re­frain from wear­ing cloth­ing that ex­pos­es the body in any kind of vul­gar man­ner; the up­per body (chest) must be cov­ered and the low­er body cov­er­ing must not be high­er than mid-thigh. Swimwear, sheer cloth­ing and en­ter­ing bare­back are not per­mit­ted.

- The pub­lic to avoid wear­ing cloth­ing or ac­ces­sories that dis­play in­ap­pro­pri­ate or ob­scene mes­sages or pic­tures that may be of­fen­sive to oth­ers or which con­tain signs or sym­bols of gangs or groups that are a threat to se­cu­ri­ty.

- Shoes or footwear re­main manda­to­ry but there is no longer a dis­tinc­tion be­tween slip­pers and san­dals. The on­ly rule man­dates prop­er soles and grip to pre­vent the risks of slip­page and falls.

- Head and face cov­er­ings are al­lowed once it does not ob­scure fa­cial fea­tures and al­low for a full view of the face. Where fa­cial cov­er­ings are worn, peo­ple may be re­quired to re­move them for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pur­pos­es. But peo­ple can be checked in a sep­a­rate room if re­quired.

- The pub­lic will be al­lowed to give rea­sons for why they are in breach of the new dress code, like in unique cir­cum­stances where an in­di­vid­ual’s be­long­ings are de­stroyed due to fire or flood.