Bus drivers can’t show leg

Some Wellington bus drivers have been yanked from work mid-shift for wearing shorts, because of a rule that nobody is owning up to inventing.

Two Go Wellington drivers were told on Wednesday not to come in to work the next day because they refused to wear the uniform long pants to work.

Driver Trish Fenaughty was pulled in from work and told to go home for wearing shorts.

This meant she was unable to drive the No 22 bus from Wellington Railway Station to Johnsonville shortly before 3pm on Wednesday, service.

It’s unclear whether a trouserwearing driver was able to cover her shift.

Before the July 15 overhaul of Wellington’s bus services, drivers could wear shorts, trousers and skirts as part of their uniform. After the change, only trousers and skirts were issued.

Fenaughty said she disliked skirts, and with the temperature in her bus reaching 26 degrees Celsius on Wednesday afternoon, she wore shorts.

‘‘Apparently, they are part of [Public Transport Operating Model Rules]. Greater Wellington Regional Council put together the rules for uniform requirements.’’

Fenaughty said she had a doctor’s as well as the return certificate, saying she was heat-intolerant, but had been told that she would need a specialist to confirm this if she was going to get an official exception to wear shorts.

Specialist appointments were time-consuming to get, she said.

Tramways Union secretary Kevin O’Sullivan said the situation was ‘‘stupidity of the highest order’’.

‘‘They are sending people home when they are short of drivers.’’

He knew of just one Wellington driver who had managed to get a specialist certificate to wear shorts, due to eczema.

But the source of the no-shorts policy is up for debate.

O’Sullivan had been told by Go Wellington that the company was merely enforcing rules handed down by Greater Wellington Regional Council, which oversees Metlink.

But a Metlink spokesman said it had no rule that decreed drivers must wear long trousers.

‘‘Our requirements do not preclude shorts; we ask only that drivers are well presented, and it is up to the operators to exercise their discretion,’’ he said.

‘‘We are not aware of any driver having been sent home, and if that happened, it was certainly not at our say-so . . . we have nothing against shorts.’’

But that was news to Go Wellington, which in a statement yesterday said shorts were currently not part of the official Metlink uniform.

‘‘Contractually, it’s a requirement that drivers wear the prescribed uniform items while operating Metlink services,’’ the company said.

‘‘We’re discussing this with Metlink, and hopefully a pragmatic solution can be achieved, such as including shorts as part of the official uniform.’’

O’Sullivan said Auckland bus drivers were told they could wear shorts after a similar stoush a few years back.

‘‘We have nothing against shorts.’’ Go Wellington