Workwear

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Work clothing , including work clothing or uniforms , in Austria also gear , is clothing that is worn during working hours .

Legal issues

In terms of labor law , a distinction must be made between the subgroups of work clothing , uniforms and protective clothing :

  • Work clothing has proven to be useful for certain professions and has become common for them (e.g. waiters , cooks or carpenters ). Work clothing is considered to be if it is fundamentally the responsibility of the employee to procure it; the selection may be limited according to the requirements of the work owed, but is determined by the employee according to personal taste.
  • Uniforms are those items of clothing that, by order of the employer , are to be worn during working hours for special identification in the interests of the work. This purpose can be achieved by specifying the color and material of the clothing to be worn during work.
  • Protective clothing is work clothing thatmust be worn by the employee during working hoursfor reasons of occupational safety .

In the case of work clothing, the employee must accept that the restrictive requirements of the employer in the context of work instructions relating to clothing mean that he is largely deprived of the opportunity to give his clothing his own personal touch to distinguish it from others. In German labor law, the “changing at the company ordered by the employer” in order to put on work clothing or protective clothing is usually part of the working hours that must be remunerated.

If the employer prohibits the wearing of individual signs for work clothes, e.g. B. in the sense of the prohibition of wearing visible signs of "political, philosophical or religious convictions" (e.g. a necklace with a cross, headscarf, etc.), this regulation must apply to all persons equally non-discriminatory (see also the ECJ decision C-157/15 and C-188/15).

Workwear

Chef clothes
Fisherman shirt

The procurement of work clothing is generally the responsibility of the employee; legally required protective clothing must be provided by the employer or the costs for the acquisition. If the employer orders uniformed clothing in a certain color, material and appearance, one speaks of service clothing . Usually it is provided by the employer free of charge.

History of work clothing

Workwear, the function of which went beyond mere protection against danger, developed as early as the Middle Ages. Even then, craftsmen wore items of clothing that they identified as belonging to their profession. Over the years, these garments have evolved to meet new production and working conditions. Many professional groups in the craft still have traditional guild clothing today, which is either worn constantly when practicing the profession or is put on in certain phases, such as the completion of training.

The work clothing of nurses and carers comes from the vestments of the order. The nurses were mostly incumbent on religious sisters, who dressed in simple robes and wore hoods on their heads. The classic nurse's cap has now disappeared from workwear in care, but the traditional, easy-care white color for gowns and trousers was only replaced by more colorful shades with the advent of resistant materials.

In principle, there is greater freedom in workwear today than in earlier times. However, certain customs are still justified today, such as the different colors that are used by different trades (see below) and make it possible to see from a distance which trade a worker belongs to on a construction site .

Occupational clothing from other occupations and activities

In certain areas of public service , e.g. B. In the fire brigade ( see: Category: Fire brigade protective clothing ) and police , in the military , in church service , in court and in special voluntary activities in politics, certain clothing is required, see

The business and office clothing, which has no functional necessity, but has established itself as the standard in certain fields of professional life, has a special role.

Parts of work clothing

Headgear

Outerwear

Hand and footwear

carrier

Name tag attached to work clothes

In transportation

In the craft

With medical personnel

In the meantime, staff in medical practices often wear polo shirts or t-shirts instead of smocks or tunics. Work clothing that is potentially contaminated with microorganisms must be disinfected, e.g. B. When washing at least 60 ° C with VAH-listed disinfectant detergent.

In the service industry

In sport

Protective clothing

Protective clothing is required for professions that are exposed to particular dangers while performing their work . Protective clothing includes protective helmets , safety gloves and respiratory masks .

market

In 2007, around 750 million euros were sold in work clothing in Germany. In Austria, the manufacturer's turnover for workwear in 2012 was around 121 million euros.

Workwear fashion

Since the 1980s and even more so in the 1990s, real workwear fashion has been established. Work clothes became fashionable props. This tendency was particularly widespread among hip-hoppers and skaters . However, this tendency existed much earlier in some cases, so classic jeans are a piece of clothing that originally comes from work clothes. Skinheads began to wear work clothes (especially work shoes) in their free time as early as the 1960s.

literature

  • Irena Turnau: European occupational dress from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Institute of the Archeology and Ethnology, Warsaw 1994, ISBN 83-85463-26-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d BAG, judgment of February 13, 2003, Az .: 6 AZR 536/01
  2. ^ BAG, judgment of September 19, 2012, Az .: 5 AZR 678/11
  3. ↑ An internal company rule that prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious mark does not constitute direct discrimination , Court of Justice of the European Union, press release No. 30/17 of March 14, 2017.
  4. ^ Nursing changes in workwear ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Work, area and protective clothing. KVB; accessed on February 12, 2020
  6. ↑ Protective clothing - definition. In: bfga.de. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Jürgen Eustachi: Knopf and Stenz , in Die Rheinpfalz am Sonntag of October 5, 2008, p. 19.

Web links

Commons : Workwear  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Work clothes  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations