Want to do your bit for global warming? Take off your tie and wear shorts to work, advises Lord Adair Turner, the newly appointed chair of the Climate Change Committee.
According to the Sunday Times report, Lord Turner proposes that British workers should ditch the smart business suit and go for an informal look, to reduce air-conditioning output (hence reducing carbon dioxide emissions), and enable more people to walk or cycle to the office.
He even suggests that civil servants could be the ones to set an example on the new casual dress code.
If this were to happen, workers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would be the first to rip off their ties, judging from the famous sex discrimination case which came to a head in 2004. A male Jobcentre worker, Matthew Thompson, claimed that it was unfair for men to have to wear a tie when women didn't have a similar dress code, especially when - as in his case - he was not in a public-facing role. Around 7,000 other DWP employees filed similar claims.
In 2006, another DWP employee, Raymond Akers, tried to claim unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination on similar grounds, but lost his case at the tribunal stage. Before he resigned under pressure he wore extreme outfits to the office as a form of protest. On one occasion, he arrived donning a tie featuring an array of coloured condoms – introducing an entirely new purpose for this arguably pointless clothing item.
However, with the British Medical Association warning that doctors’ ties can spread diseases, there are growing signs that those who hold on to this symbol of respectability could be losing their grip. Lord Turner claims that he won’t be wearing one this summer, and I can report that top government figures have actually been spotted publicy sporting open-necked shirts. Who knows where this environmentally-friendly trend could lead.
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