Bus drivers wear skirts after shorts banned

After being banned from wearing shorts during the heatwave, bus drivers in Nantes have hit back… by wearing skirts.

With temperatures soaring above 30C, drivers had asked bosses at bus and tram network Semitan if they could wear bermudas, cut-off pantacourt or shorts and were refused. So they decided to make their point in a different way.

As skirts are allowed, about half a dozen of the male drivers upheld the company’s rulebook to the letter and wore skirts to make the point that the shorts ban was ‘discrimination’.

Two of them, Didier Sauvetre and Gabriel Magner of the CFDT union, appeared in a video put online by Presse Océan to complain about the ban and saying the drivers’ uniform was not suitable for hot summer weather.

Complaining about the ban, Mr Magner told the website: “The bosses’ offices at Semitan are air-conditioned and that’s not the case for the majority of vehicles.

“It’s not acceptable. Spending more than seven hours in a vehicule at nearly 50C behind our windscreens is just not right. It’s unbearable.”

He added that the management could set up its own heatwave plan for temperatures above 30C, which would allow staff to wear shorts.

The Semitan management did not wish to comment.