The draft agreement does include a clause that stipulates:

“workers shall wear suitable clothes for their activities or workwear clothing and, in particular, shoes with non-slip soles.”

However there is no mention at all of ‘banning’ high-heels, and a spokesperson for the Commission in London confirmed that the draft proposal “says nothing about heels.”

However it is stipulated that “workers shall not wear jewellery on their hands or arms during work,” another clause picked up in the Mail’s reporting.

The explanation given by Coiffure EU is that “wearing jewellery at work in hairdressing, especially when washing hair is a leading cause of skin diseases – several studies prove this,” while the Commission itself notes that it is already prohibited in Germany.

The draft proposals also include a clause on preventing the ‘emotional collapses’ alluded to in the Mail.

This states that employers must “ensure a careful preparation of work, an appropriate planning of the working time and work organisation.”

However the spokesperson for the Commission told Full Fact that this “does not foresee a limit on the number of haircuts carried out by a hairdresser per day.”

This would appear to contradict the Mail’s account, which insists that the EU is proposing “not to let staff do too many haircuts in one day.”

Certainly in the draft text itself there is nothing which stipulates a maximum number of cuts that can be made daily, and rather focuses in more general terms on employers providing “appropriate support for the individual” to prevent stress.

Conclusion

The Mail is right that new regulations for hairdressers are being drafted, and it has accurately reproduced some of the clauses under discussion.

However in doing so the paper has made some assertions that aren’t quite supported by the facts. The plans are being drafted by trade bodies rather than the EU itself, and as they stand they don’t include anything to support the headline claim that high heels are being “banned”.

Recent press coverage on “EU’s high heel ban for salon staff” and “Barmy EU to ban stylist’s ring & heels” are misleading and reports of a new health and safety directive are untrue.

What lies behind the “hair-raising” headlines is an own initiative by salon owners and hairdressers to help better protect the health and safety of all those working in the industry in the EU.

The draft agreement negotiated by Coiffure EU and UNI Europa builds upon existing national best practices and existing regulations in member states. Such as the current HSE guidelines (pdf) on the provision of gloves. It will mean little change for those hairdressers – salon owners and workers – who already follow the law and health and safety guidance.

Bacon prices could soar by 20% after new EU...
More inane and semi-literate comments complaining, once again, of the rest of Europe coming into line with a British rule, one we've had since 1999, that won't effect anything whatsoever.
Quite a few agreeing with it, though - from a pig welfare point-of-view.

It's a pity I can't seem to post anything on there lately, from any email address. I was hoping to get a moronic comment in about halal pork.

But anyway, there's a 'British Pig Executive'? Who knew!

WHAT - we're not allowed to fly the flag off St George without getting into trouble, but we have to fly this? Tell them to take a running jump, I say.
- Grint, Cheddar, England, 29/4/2012 3:04

This flag has become a symbol of oppression, a symbol of a Europe that is now post-democratic. The freedom that Europe won after WW2 and the Cold War have been striped away by a bureaucratic Leviathan that ignores the wishes of sovereign states that have been gullible enough to have joined its ranks, it is in fact nothing more than a type of Soviet Union that used Lawyers and Red Tape instead of tanks and the Red Army to get control of countries.
- Andy, Lancashire, England., 29/4/2012 1:56

If I personally see any EU flags flying in this country I will remove them.I urge others to do the same. Unfortunately under present EU law, which makes 75 percent of all laws now in this country, I am liable to be arrested without a trial, extradited and imprisoned indefinitely for a crime against the state. Our EU funded BBC media and government tell us the people that object to this are swivel eyed loonies. I call it being patriotic, standing up for British democracy, sovereignty and freedom and the rights of those now living whose parents and grandparents sacrificed their lives for during the war.
- Free Britain from the unelected EU dictators in Brussels, Eastbourne Sussex, 29/4/2012 7:06

I wouldn't be at all surprised if people here didn't soon start burning the EUssr's precious political logo (in the form of a flag) in public. Just soo very many of us have had quite enough of them and their crazy ways. They won't even let people voluntarily renounce their EU citizenship, which a previous treasonous government allowed them to force upon us all. “May She defend our laws” it says in our national anthem, a reference to the Queen’s Coronation Oath; I think it’s high time that She did before others start doing her job for her.
- Derrick, Nottingham, 29/4/2012 6:02

I have not seen the UKIP flag - but I will soon ..... EVERYWHERE.
- Jack Russell.., Yorkshire., 29/4/2012 6:56

The European flag should be flown everywhere in the UK - just to remind people we are now a vassal state of the EU and just how much the House of Commons is irrelevant. It should always be flown at the House of Commons when Parliament is not sitting - so most of the time then. Also a picture of Angela Merkel should always by on display, and be the same size, next to official portraits of the Queen.
- Steve, Eastleigh, 29/4/2012 5:10

Yesterday I suddenly realised that the number plates on my car had EU flags on (stupid not to have noticed them before). They are now covered with tape and will remain so. How did we get EU conned like this?
- John W, Wiltshire, 29/4/2012 6:25

Does it really matter? - ironmorg, Coventry UK, 29/4/2012 7:20 OK let's simplify it for you. Does paying FIFTY ONE MILLION POUNDS A DAY to a corrupt communist regime matter to you? It's YOUR money. WAKE UP! Just think of what we could spend that money on and that is only ONE DAY's payment. People died fighting for YOUR freedom to spout apathetic rubbish like that.
- Kim Gandy, Rayleigh Essex, 29/4/2012 7:27

I'm fed up with reading about flags. Ban them all, I say.

- Alfred, UK, 29/4/2012 10:18
Click to rate Rating 6

Didn't we get this flag story about a year ago?

All those calling for an EU exit are wasting their breath. The UK is not leaving the EU, not now or ever, just deal with it will you.

- Anne, West Midlands EU, 29/4/2012 6:06
Click to rate Rating 47

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1tUvg29T5

Yesterday I suddenly realised that the number plates on my car had EU flags on (stupid not to have noticed them before). They are now covered with tape and will remain so. How did we get EU conned like this?
- John W, Wiltshire, 29/4/2012 6:25

good job there aren't any laws about covering up parts of your number plate.

The anti- EU DM throws out some breadcrumbs and as usual UKIP follows the trail. Isolated as we are from mainstream EU initiatives, there would be anarchy if we were to leave. UKIP are a one trick pony, without any other ideas.

- Anne, West Midlands EU, 18/5/2012 4:04
Click to rate Rating 28

I think Anne may have been hoping for more.