www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11648210%5E13762,00.html
Another reason to hope that Modge play more gigs on the North Shore...
Toll collectors win bra battle
By Samantha Baden
December 10, 2004
FEMALE toll operators on a key Sydney motorway will be allowed to roll their sleeves up so they do not have to expose their bras to passing motorists, a court directed today.
And an official disciplinary warning issued to a toll collector who refused to roll down her sleeves when requested by management has been suspended.
The woman had rolled up the sleeves because otherwise motorists were able to see up her shirt sleeves to her bra.
Tracey Hastings, a toll booth operator on the M5 south west, today lodged a dispute with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) after she was issued with an official verbal warning by her employer Interlink Roads.
Ms Hastings, who is being represented in the dispute by the Australian Workers Union (AWU), was issued with the warning on Tuesday and is on stress leave.
Ms Hasting's legal representative, Jamie Clements, today told the IRC his client, and most of the about 20 female workers on the toll booths, had been rolling their sleeves up on their company-issued polo shirts for some time without incident.
"The polo shirts are of a unisex nature and although Ms Hastings has a size small ... the arm in the polo shirt is quite loose," Mr Clements told the court.
"(As a result) their (the female toll booth operators) armpit up until their bra is exposed to passing motorists.
"If they don't roll their sleeves up they are exposing themselves to passing motorists."
Ms Hastings was today seeking to have the official warning withdrawn by the company.
Counsel for Interlink, Bryan Belling, told the court the basis for the company requirement that toll collectors not roll their sleeves up was a clause in their award saying they must be presented in a "neat and tidy" manner.
Mr Belling said the company was prepared to agree to Ms Hasting's request that the official warning be suspended.
After requests from both parties, Justice Anna Backman adjourned the matter to private conciliation.
The IRC then recommended that Interlink's official warning to Ms Hastings be suspended while further discussions on the issue take place.
"(And) in the interim that all staff be allowed to roll their sleeves over twice while on duty," the IRC's recommendations said.
Both parties have also been ordered to meet and discuss suitable alterations to the company-issued uniforms and report back on February 18.
AWU NSW secretary Russ Collison hailed the interim directions recommendations as a "win" for the union and said "common sense had prevailed".
"It's extremely embarrassing for women to be placed in that position," he said.
"Unless the company does respond to what the commission has said, we would look at that very dimly and at what options were available to us."
An Interlink spokesman said the IRC's recommendations regarding uniform were consistent with an offer to negotiate that was made to Ms Hastings before the matter being taken to the commission.
keeps me entertained for hours (shhh....)
