Close Shave for Transit Officers

Flowing beards are not the go for Sydney’s rail transit officers after RailCorp stood one down because he had a small goatee beard on his lip.

RailCorp management moved to unilaterally introduce their bald new grooming policy, falsely claiming to staff that unions had agreed to the new standard.

The new policy states that officers may only grow a beard whilst "on leave or otherwise absent from duty"

The policy also says that a "minimum three weeks growth is necessary before resuming duty" and that "beards must be full face in the 'King George V' style".

"It's ridiculous," says ASU president Barry Rule. "Are they going to have people out there with rulers measuring people's stubble?"

"I thought that RailCorp was being managed by Vince Graham, not Carson Kressley.

"This is another example of RailCorp's zero tolerance policy, not only towards members of the public, but towards its own employees.

"Maybe they should think about altering the colour of the uniform rather than handing out razor blades.

"This is all about management trying to intimidate staff by getting them to bow down to any ridiculous demand."

Even one of the ASU's transit officer representatives, Dragan Bircevic, sports a stylish goattee, which escaped the wrath of RailCorp management.

ASU delegates and union officials met with RailCorp management, who quickly retracted the "new" standard and stated that they will be simply enforcing current RailCorp grooming standards.

The ASU claim that Transit Officer management have refused to abide by this policy and are continuing to mislead staff, with a number of staff at Central depot being harassed into shaving after senior management threatened to publicly stand them down.

The ASU says it will take the matter to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission if management persists.

King George V was unavailable for comment.

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:37 EST