'Hot' Swedish Bus Driver Puts on Skirt to Protest Uniform Regulations

Problem: it's hot outside, and the boss won't allow you to wear shorts. Solution: wear a skirt! However unconventional, for a Swedish driver it worked perfectly well.

Göran Sandberg from the city of Umeå found his own solution to the heat in the driver's seat when he chose to wear a skirt at work, whee he found that shorts were banned by his employers.

Working for the local bus company Transdev, 49-year-old Sandberg found the summer heat unbearable, with the scorching Nordic sun shining through the large glass surfaces and the air conditioning not working as it should when the doors keep opening and closing all the time.

After trying shorts and receiving a reprimand for violating the company's uniform policy, Göran found an unorthodox solution to his problem by borrowing a skirt from a female colleague.

"They allow female employers to wear skirts, and apparently men too, but we have no possibility to order skirts through our webshop, where we order uniforms," Göran Sandberg explained to Swedish national broadcaster SVT.

When Göran donned the skirt, he was contacted by his immediate boss, who offered to order thin suit trousers, which Göran refused. He said that he wanted a functional uniform with handy pockets and explained that he found it discriminatory that only women could wear skirts.

Transdec marketing manager Eva Tiséus said she had not heard of such problems before, stating that the company did not plan to change its uniform policy.

"It is clear that our skirts are intended for women, but if Göran sees it as the solution, he will get his skirt alright. But we turn on the air conditioning so that he does not have to actually wear it," Eva Tiséus said.

For his unconventional approach, Göran has received a lot of support from his colleagues and cheerful smiles from passengers. However, he also admitted to feeling a bit naked at times.

"At the same time, it's quite good, more men should to try it out. It is really a little sad that a man wearing a skirt makes headlines in 2017," Sandberg said.

Back in 2003, a fellow Swedish bus driver from the same city, Umeå, also tried wearing a skirt amid a heatwave. Mats Lindgren, though, had more luck as he was granted the opportunity to wear shorts in the long run, while also receiving international attention.

Earlier this year, skirts were used as a convenient-yet-unconventional solution to unseasonable heat and regulations in France and the UK.

In France, Göran's bus-driving colleagues started wearing skirts in protest against an allegedly sexist dress code amid a heat have. As was the case in Sweden, the same set of rules that prohibited shorts allowed a breezier option of wearing a skirt.

In Britain, male pupils at the Isca academy in Devon started a bare-legged rebellion against the school's regulations by donning skirts.

Most tweets supporting boys at Devon school wearing skirts to lessons in protest at not being allowed to put on shorts in heatwave. pic.twitter.com/POWm2oTUVj

— Simon Hall (@SimonHallNews) 22 июня 2017 г.