The construction firm Mears has banned its workers from having beards, citing health and safety grounds.
Staff were told of the decision at a “tool box talk” in Tower Hamlets, east London, that beards were now banned so that workers could “wear appropriate dust masks effectively”.
Mears has said workers need to be clean-shaven in order to be safely fitted with a tight-fitting face mask when working in dusty environments, and exceptions are only made if a worker can’t shave or a mask cannot be worn for medical or religious reasons. But for the company to allow this either a medical certificate or a letter from a place of worship must be presented.
Can we say elfnsafetygonemad yet?