Company’s strict ‘vegan policy at work’ rule sparks debate

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Mohsina Dodhiya13th June 202313th June 2023Ethics, Food, News

What do you think? Are companies allowed to impose such rules?

A company has made headlines for asking job applicants to confirm that they will only eat vegan food at work.

The unusual request has sparked an online debate about whether companies can impose such requirements on job candidates.

It all started when a man took to Reddit, to share his experience during the shortlisting process of a job interview.

The anonymous user posted a screenshot of the email he received.

A portion of it read: “Hello, Thanks for your application. To help us shortlist, please reply to the following questions.”

Other questions on the list were scribbled out to highlight the one, which stated: “ Four. Our workplaces are strictly vegan. You do not have to be vegan away from work, but you do need to bring vegan lunch and have plant milk to eat on-site or eat lunch offsite.

“Can you confirm you are fine with this?”

The Reddit user captioned the screenshot of the question: “Applied for a job, received this in an email. Can they really force this upon me or not hire me based on this?”

Online debate

Users flocked to the post to give their opinions and share their experiences.

“That is so weird. Some startups really do the best they can not to hire, lol,” wrote one user.

“I once applied to a restaurant that was the same. They said I could eat non-vegan foods somewhere outside with some distance or at home but forbidden on site,” added another.

A third commented: “I will be a worktime vegan if the pay is good enough.”

Answering the original question of whether it is legal for companies to impose restrictions, one user penned: “They can definitely choose to not allow meat on their worksite. As long as it doesn’t violate protections for gender, religion, or disability they can set whatever rule they want.”

Another person also reiterated: “Yes, they can not hire you over this. There are specific characteristics they cannot base a hiring decision on… gender, religion, ethnic origin, etc… but your dietary choice is not a protected class. If they want to hire on that basis, they are free to do so.”