German court rules bosses can order women to wear bras to work
By ANIThursday, January 13, 2011
LONDON - A court in Germany has ruled that bosses have the right to order their female employees to wear bras while at the workplace.
Along with that their immediate superiors can also decide the length of a lady’s fingernails, and how well groomed the person is.
Where men and their beards are concerned, the court ruled bosses have every right to order them to be kept well trimmed.
The State Labour Court in North Rhine-Westphalia was ruling on a case involving the dress and grooming habits of airport security personnel, but its decisions will apply to all workplaces in the most populous state in Germany.
“Being told to wear a bra and to keep fingernails to shorter than half-a-centimetre does not impinge on personal rights,” the Daily Mail quoted the ruling by the court in Cologne.
“It is not a disproportionate impairment of personal rights,” it stated.
Women have to wear bras that are white or flesh coloured because the court said bright colours should not “shine through”, and the order could be dispensed with only if the female was wearing an undershirt.
Employees have said the criteria were too harsh, but the court ruled in favour of the company rulebook.
The only victory the workers scored was that companies do not have the right to ban certain shades of hair colour or nail polish and that wigs, banned under the rulebook of the security personnel, may be worn. (ANI)
