UK changes work law on turbans for Sikhs
Wednesday, 09/04/2014
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: Amid calls by a section of the Sikh community to boycott the official Baisakhi celebrations in protest against Britain’s role in the build-up to the 1984 Operation Bluestar, UK prime minister David Cameron has announced a major relaxation in rules on wearing turbans at workplaces.
Speaking at a Baisakhi event at 10 Downing Street on Monday evening, Cameron said Sikhs would no longer be compelled to remove turbans and wear hardhats at certain work environment, but not in others, a situation that arose due to what officials called “a quirk in law”.
The change in law takes forward British rules and legislation relevant to the Sikh community that were first challenged in 1969, when bus driver Sohan Singh Jolly succeeded in his campaign to overturn a local ban on bus drivers wearing turbans in Wolverhampton.
Under current law, turbanwearing Sikhs are exempt from wearing head protection on construction sites, but have to wear it in less hazardous workplaces. Sikhs are not allowed to wear anything over or under their turbans for religious reasons.
But now the Cameron government has included a provision in the Deregulation Bill to extend the exemption to all but a very few of the most hazardous workplaces. Cameron said: “We are opening the door to allow turban-wearing Sikhs to accept jobs in occupations and industries that they might previously have considered off-limit.”
