Compensation to sacked man who wore earring

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 16

Compensation to sacked man who wore earring

NZPA-AAP London A man sacked from his job as a van-driver for wearing an ear stud has won £550 (?1160) compensation after successfully appealing, under the Sex Discrimination Act, against his dismissal.

The “Daily Telegraph” newspaper in London said that Mr Bob Carpenter, of Hexthorpe, Doncaster, taking his own case, had appealed to the Industrial Tribunal in Sheffield because two women colleagues also wore earrings and had not been asked to remove them.

“I feel I have proved something for every male in Britain,” Mr Carpenter said. “There was a principle at stake and I had to do something.”

Mr Carpenter was employed at the Kenning Motor Group’s Doncaster branch ana only four months after being employed he had his left ear pierced with a gold stud. He was asked to remove it for safety reasons but he

refused and was sacked.

“I just couldn’t believe it. Even my solicitor laughed when I went to see him about it,” Mr Carpenter said. “I had told the boss I was quite prepared to take it out if the women were asked to do the same.

“I said I was not going to be discriminated against but it made no difference.

“I have spent nine years with the Army including a spell in Northern Ireland and thought I had finished with tough disciplinary measures when I came back to civvy street. “But I never met anything so stupid during my time as a lance-corporal with the 13th/18th Royal Hussars.” The tribunal was told that Mr Carpenter’s letter of dismissal gave the reasons as safety and company image. • The chairman, Mr Alistair Bigham, said the tribunal considered Mr Carpenter had been discriminated against. A stud was “very unlikely” to catch on projecting objects.