https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 9023&hl=en
Bristol, England (AP)
An 18-year-old punk rocker, fired by Rolls Royce on grounds that the four-inch spikes of his hairdo endangered thes eyes of his co-workers, lost an appeal against the decision on Tuesday.
Peter Mortiboy, whose unusual dress includes 18 earrings, a studded dog collar, steel armlets and a stud through his nose, was repeatedly warned by Rolls that his appearance was not up to company standards, an industrial tribunal in this west coast port was told.
The luxury car maker dismissed him from the Rolls Royce Technical College and his £120-a-week job as an apprentice technician when he began sporting spikes last June, training manager Howard Parry testified.
"His hairstyle represented a safety hazard," Parry said. "The spikes projected from the surface of his head for some distance and an accidental movement could have injured a supervisor learning aover him."
Mortiboy, who said he used industrial adhesive and glue to mould his black hair into stiff, vertical spikes, denied that the spikes are dangerous.
"They would be if they were three feet long," he said. "I mix with people all the time in crowded nightclubs and I have never injured anyone," he said. "I did not cut them off because I am not happy unless I look the way I want to look .... The only trouble I have is sleeping. I have to lie on my stomatch."
In December 1983 Bristol, UK punk rocker Peter Mortiboys was sacked from his job as an apprentice at Rolls Royce car manufacturers. Reason being because his employees in their infinite wisdom saw his spikey hair as a threat to the safety of his fellow employees (snigger). His story was given national exposure by the UK Press and was was seen by Clash minder and PR stunt co-ordinator Kosmos Vinyl. Vinyl didn't get him his job back but he offered him a bassplayers slot in a London punk band?
