Four traffic officers in Police Scotland have collectively been paid £60,000 after taking legal action when they were told to shave their facial hair before the force-wide policy was introduced on beards. The payment was made after the force decided to introduce a new clean-shaven policy that was scheduled to start in May, but it had to be postponed due to the staff criticism. The policy was originally proposed to allow officers to wear protective FFP3 masks that require users to be clean-shaven.
The group of officers took legal action citing sex and disability discrimination, which was supported by the Scottish Police Federation. David Kennedy, the general secretary of the federation, stated that the officers had been severely affected emotionally by the situation and “had to go off sick because somebody had told them to shave, which sounds ridiculous but that’s the reality of what happened.” At the beginning of the dispute, the federation noted that some male staff’s relatives, including their children, did not know what they looked like without a beard, so the demand to alter their appearance would have far-reaching consequences for them.
Alan Speirs, the Assistant Chief Constable who announced the plans, confirmed that there would have been a few exemptions, though concerns were raised about potential equality issues with the policy regarding LGBT and other officers. It has been noted that the postponed policy will be reviewed next year. The four officers settled on the issue and signed 90-day non-disclosure agreements, which prevented details from emerging until now. According to Staff federation, member treatments should be based on treating them as individuals and not a mere number.
Police Scotland was unavailable for immediate comments regarding the settlement
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