Calgary retailers may be complaining about a labour shortage, but that hasn’t stopped two companies from enforcing strict dress policies that have some employees claiming discrimination.

Sarah Walton, who works at a Starbucks coffee shop in downtown Calgary, said she must take her piercings out every day before her shift. Walton said she was told that if she wanted to keep her job, she would have to lose her three nose rings.

“I am a good employee and I know that,” she told CBC. “I have never been fired for the way I look.”

Starbucks along with the grocery chain Safeway confirmed to CBC that they do not allow their employees to wear non-traditional piercings.

It appears companies will have to come to grips with a growing labour force that seems to favour body art. A 2001 study of university undergraduates conducted by the U.S. Mayo Clinic found that 51 per cent of students had piercings, and Health Canada reports it has observed a dramatic rise in the number of tattooing and piercing shops across the country.