It could be neater with a hairband but otherwise I’d be fine with it too.
I also think that that is fine. Some people in this organisation seem to forget that we only have our young people for 5 hours out of a 168 hour week - asking someone to change their hair style for us is a big ask. Especially when they’ve just started at the sqn , and are not as invested as some of the staff!
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At the end of the day, if someone’s parents really wanted to they will complain to the press. HQAC will, for PR purposes, issue an apology and you’ll have wasted effort trying to get them to cut it, fighting a complaint etc for nothing. Cut your losses now and allow it.
We have far more important worry about in the Corps and hairstyle isn’t one of them.
If some RAF wallah got upset, we should point out we are a youth organisation.
It has been mentioned we have regs that reflect that, rather than mimicking the armed forces, which would be a positive. If a cadet joins the armed forces or some other job with appearance regulations then they need to comply as it is contractual.
We have all probably known and know people with long hair, short hair, coloured hair and all points inbetween and apart from maybe a personal preference, having a hairstyle outside of our personal preference, it has no bearing on the type of person they are or how we get on with them.
When you look at that picture it is no worse than many female staff and cadets I have seen over the years. Teenage females do seem quite at home with changing the colour of their hair or streaking, highlighting etc, which doesn’t present me with a problem, having had one daughter who did this to the point where we didn’t comment.
Based on very bitter experience my advice would be to escalate to your Wing HQ, do not pass go, do not collect £200 and do nothing else other than what they tell you :-).
Male cadets cannot be party to female regulations and I would suggest you make this someone else’s decision. I got burned badly by a similar situation to this, you have been warned…
In all seriousness, if you don’t escalate to Wing HQ you can find yourself in very hot water.
If you got very hot water over something like this, someone has their priorities screwed.
Seriously, the dress regs are illegal, I raised this issue with the Aspire group last year and haven’t heard anything back, we pretend we are all Equality Act compliant, we have detailed training on how it applies, but choose to ignore the most commonly way it is infringed.
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Just point out that as far as can be understood, the dress regs are contrary to law and thus you can’t force anyone to obey them - and you will disregard any order from them to do so as you won’t follow an illegal order. That ought to shut them up for a while.
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It was complicated and sadly caused by a badly informed CO however, HQAC will lean back to the hair regulations being an organisational standard (whatever that means), this was quoted to me.
Good luck with this one, I would still escalate and tell the parents the same to avoid being the bad guy.
Also, don’t forget to rely heavily on ACP 020 PI 104, ‘Equality & Diversity’
I’d advise any cadet to follow the detailed procedure and submit a formal grievance:
“24. Every cadet has the right to submit a complaint if he or she believes that a breach of any aspect of the RAFAC’s Equality and Diversity policy has taken place. This would usually initially be to their CO, but where necessary or desirable, it can be made to any appropriate adult and the process of dealing with the complaint should mirror that for CFAV.”
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I’d also argue, in the case of the OP that the regulations are indirectly discriminatory because of his race…
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Where that one falls down is that the hair style in question is a choice as it would be if I decided I wanted dreadlocks. There are other hair styles available to the cadet which do meet the Dress regulations. (considering that we have hundreds of black cadets in Laser it’s an argument i fear the Op would lose).
The choice doesn’t really come into it. Girls could (and many do) choose to have very short hair which didn’t touch their collars.
The issue is that girls can choose to style their hair in ways that boys can’t. There is no good reason why that is the case. Therefore boys are being treated less favourably than girls.
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I wasn’t commenting on male/female issue, you stated that he could claim he was being indirectly discriminated due to his race, which isn’t the case.
Get a letter from the GP stating it’s in his best interests that the style covers the scar and being in the ATC, as this aids his psychological health and well being.
If the Corps want to argue this I suspect they would be on very difficult ground.
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Case law (both domestic and EU) suggests having different hair regulations for males and females can be justified.
In Smith v Safeway plc [1996] IRLR 456 CA, the employer had a policy that stipulated that men should have tidy hair no longer than collar length and that no unconventional hairstyles were allowed. Women, however, could have long hair provided that it was tied back. This was held not to be discriminatory because the employer had applied the dress code equally to both sexes, even though that meant there were conventional differences between the sexes. https://www.xperthr.co.uk/faq/can-an-employer-have-a-policy-that-requires-male-employees-to-keep-their-hair-short/98058/
Although a full reading makes it much less clear, as a later case was decided in favour of the man (and this has not so far been taken to the ECHR).
“This case can, however, be contrasted with Pell v Wagstaff and Wheatley Hotel [2000] ET/2801882/99 in which a male bar-job applicant succeeded in a sex discrimination claim against a hotel that refused to engage him because he would not cut off his ponytail. In that case, the tribunal held that, although there was a dress code that applied to both sexes, it was more onerous on men and that Mr Pell’s appearance was not unconventional in this day and age.”
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This topic was automatically closed 60 minutes after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
Thanks for all the views and comments. He will continue with it tied up until we get guidance from WingHQ.
I wonder why the topic was closed? Too political? Does this happen a lot?
Just for info, after you mark the topic as answered/solved the topic is closed automatically an hour later. It’s answered so there’s no need to carry it on.
Cheers