I've heard that my employer can't make me wear a tie to work any more. Is this true?

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. A well publicised employment tribunal case involving a civil servant has ruled that he was a victim of sex discrimination because the dress code for men, which required a collar and tie, was stricter than the more casual code for women.

So the first thing to ask is whether your employer has different dress codes for men and women. If it is clear that formal business clothes are required by everyone, then you will probably need to keep your tie on as there's no obvious discrimination. An Employment Tribunal found that a prison officer did have to wear a tie, even though women prison officers do not, because a tie "reflected the dress code of society".

The law is therefore not as clearcut as some newspaper headlines suggest, so don't throw the tie away just yet. If blatantly different standards of dress code apply to men and women at your workplace, then you might have a case. But there is no general right not to wear a tie.