"Workers were ordered to down tools on a ^250million city centre building project - for wearing the wrong colour of hard hats. Labourers were banned from the site because their hats were white instead of blue.
Bosses had to move them to another part of the site, in the middle of Aberdeen, until a batch of blue safety helmets were delivered on Tuesday afternoon.
The contractors had been working on the Union Square mall - at 700,000sq ft, the biggest in the north of Scotland. Part of it sits alongside a main rail line from Aberdeen station and the unwitting workers fell foul of Network Rail regulations. These state that white hats should be worn by people working near rail lines who have track safety certificates. Workers without the certificate should wear blue ones."
For full details, see
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/04/anger-after-safety-chiefs-stop-work-on-250m-aberdeen-development-because-labourers-wore-wrong-coloured-hard-hats-86908-20723066/