First female bus driver sacked for being 'too short'

[Imnobody4]

Speaking as a 5ft women this is outrageous, straight out of 'Invisible Women'

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsmanchester/manchester-depots-first-female-bus-driver-sacked-for-being-too-short/ar-AARrc9o?ocid=uxbndlbing

So last month, when Tracey was given her notice, it was a devastating blow.

The reason, claims Unite the union, is that since the operator has repositioned its wing mirrors, 5ft Tracey is too short to use them at the same time as reaching the pedals.

Last month, Unite claims, bosses ruled that Tracey no longer had the 'capability' to safely drive their buses and offered her an alternative role at the company, but for less hours and pay.

Tracey declined and was given 12 weeks' notice, a decision she is now appealing.

There's a petition which quite a lot of men seem to be signing.
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/support-the-1st-female-bus-driver-at-queens-road-she-deserves-better?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1638221320&share=1ee9f7a7-05be-406a-b667-62c729f4f6f7

DH brought that to me to sign. He was just a little bit annoyed by the sheer stupidity of it!

Seems to be a clear case of unfair dismissal. After 34 years as a bus driver at the same bus depot, her employer makes it impossible for her to continue (rejecting all solutions she proposed to be able to) and only offers her fewer hours for less pay?

(The company isn't 34 years old, but I don't think that matters for her claim to succeed.)

I've already signed the petition. It's shameful the way she's been treated.

Signed and shared

Signed

The internet says it had 170+ buses and it's parent company will have more again.
They will run the numbers and will try play the long game on this by ignoring that the average hight for a woman is 5" 4 against 5"9 for a man.

I did not bother to look but am guessing the average hight of both Board will be closer to 5"9 than 5"4

Its clear cut indirect sex discrimination isn't it?

Her ability isn't in doubt. Its her physical attributes which are mainly a result of her being female.

What % of men are 5ft? What % of women are 5ft? Why are they buying buses designed for the physical attributes of men only?

We are time travelling to 1970, aren't we?

Unbelievable.

Sex discrimination and also possibly falling foul of race discrimination laws as Asian people are likely to be shorter - which I believe is why the police had to scrap height limits. So an Asian person could argue they'd be less likely to get a job there due to their race. I hope she takes them to the cleaners.

@CovidCorvid

Sex discrimination and also possibly falling foul of race discrimination laws as Asian people are likely to be shorter - which I believe is why the police had to scrap height limits. So an Asian person could argue they'd be less likely to get a job there due to their race. I hope she takes them to the cleaners.

Yes. There are some jobs where physical size may be important, but driving a bus shouldn't be one of them in 2021.

But how is that legal? Even if she wins her case, and I seriously hope she does, unless they scrap their new buses they’ve created a situation where they can’t hire (a lot of) women.

Will they just go on merrily discriminating against women hires because thanks to their incompetence or malice women don’t meet the requirements of the job?

Depressing, hope she sues them I’d donate

@allmywhat

But how is that legal? Even if she wins her case, and I seriously hope she does, unless they scrap their new buses they’ve created a situation where they can’t hire (a lot of) women.

Will they just go on merrily discriminating against women hires because thanks to their incompetence or malice women don’t meet the requirements of the job?

Maybe they can just buy new mirrors?

Maybe they shouldn't have penny pinched and ordered the newer, cheaper ones in the first place.

What a bunch of fucking arseholes Go North West Ltd are.

@allmywhat

But how is that legal? Even if she wins her case, and I seriously hope she does, unless they scrap their new buses they’ve created a situation where they can’t hire (a lot of) women.

Will they just go on merrily discriminating against women hires because thanks to their incompetence or malice women don’t meet the requirements of the job?

If she wins any (short) woman who is qualified but refused a job has an opportunity to tie the company up in litigation. If that happens it's cheaper to re-retro fit the mirrors. "Bean counting" depends on beneficial variables when it cost too much to ignore it forces a change in the decision making process.

Now the interesting thing is that this was a refit of an existing rolling asset.
Which appears to have been carried out by someone other than the original Manufacturer.

A Health and Safety assessment and a risk management assessment should have been carried out.
So were they generic tick box exercises or did they use an incorrect modeling of Mr. Male Average.

Now the employee brings a H&S problem to management and the solution is to fire the employee.
Corporate responsibility statements and contingent liabilities may need to be reviewed by their Auditors 🤷🏼‍♀️

It is 'Invisible women', isn't it?

Yes. There are some jobs where physical size may be important, but driving a bus shouldn't be one of them in 2021.

Especially for a job where it wasn't previously an issue.

I've signed the petition. Completely ridiculous stance from the bus company

It looks as though the manufacturers of the buses have a male template to work to. Funny that

They describe it as a 'complex' case.

It really isn't. They stuffed up by introducing new mirrors which were unsuitable for existing staff. They could have introduced better mirrors - changing the roll out as soon as the issue was noted, instead of persisting with something not fit for purpose.

Very poor show.

She doesn't lack the capability to continue the job she has performed to standard for 34 years. They have bolloxed up the functionality of the buses. If they cannot (presumably fir cost grounds) refit again immediately, she should be put on gardening leave on full pay.

And height should not be a bar to employment - all those who could drive them safely before the mistaken replacement programme should continue to be considered eligible.

There may be some physical issues which mean you cannot drive buses safely. But her 34 year record shows that a height of 5ft isn't one of them.

Surely one of the steps in the process of the designing new equipment is to test out that it is useable for all staff- tall, short, thin, larger bodied, able bodied, disabled, NT, ND? Is that not done?

Who goes 'I know I will buy a bunch of buses which won't be suitable for all our existing workforce to drive because its badly designed and only for a certain minimum height' and thinks its a good idea?

Then punishes their faultless employee for their own lack of due diligence?

I know more about bus manufacturing than i would like. Certainly buses are currently designed taking into account both men and women and take into account the 5th to 95th centile of both men and women in terms of height and weight of the country of sale. There are more regulations including women in the design than say private cars. So this seems a very odd decision to do this as i think 5ft is slightly above the 5th centile.