Germany: EU’s directive over barmaids’ dress code, engenders fury in Bavaria

European Union’s directive that beer garden barmaids cover up as protection against sunburn, has highly angered Bavarians. Brewery owners, politicians and some of the women themselves have condemned the legislation as absurd, according to Telegraph London, claiming the "tan ban", as it has been nicknamed, will destroy a centuries-old tradition.

Bavarian barmaids typically dress in a costume known as a dirndl - a dress and apron with a tight, low-cut top and a short white blouse. Under the EU's Optical Radiation Directive, employers of staff who work outdoors must ensure they cover up against the risk of sunburn. Bavarian bar keepers have been told that the dirndl will have to be replaced.

"This is European lawmaking at its most pedantic," said Munich's mayor, Christian Ude. "A waitress is no longer allowed to wander round a beer garden with a plunging neckline; I would not want to enter a beer garden under these conditions." A spokesman for the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Union said: "I have spoken to lots of waitresses and none of them have told me that sunburn in the décolleté area has ever been a problem."

Advertisement Organisers of the world's biggest beer festival, Munich's Oktoberfest, condemned the proposal as "an attack on the traditions of a region". The legislation is scheduled to be voted on next month.

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