Part of my job is to assess health and safety hazards and enforce them onsite. No matter who walks on my site, they must wear all of the required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). If they don't comply, they will not be let on site. WCB will impose large fines to the company if any of the required PPE for the job is not used and enforced. I don't think there should be any exceptions to the rule.
Hardhats are tested to withstand impacts and electrocution to a certain voltage. To my knowledge, a Turban has not been tested by the CSA to withstand impacts and electroction, and therefore is not recognized by the WCB.
I know there are some religious issues playing into this, but this is a safety issue. It is not only an issue of the individual workers being unsafe, it is also a case of these guys putting their co-workers in danger.
For example: What if one of these guys took 600 Volts through the head. At some point, his co workers might have to put themselves in danger to save this person. There could be fires, damage to equipment or injury to personnel. If the person was wearing a hard hat he may have been able to protect themselves from serious harm.
I will not work with anyone who has the potential to get injured or injure others.
I dont care if these guys were the first millworkers in the world. 20 years ago, things were done a different way, today, safety rules are alot stricter and must be complied with. We have learnt from the misfortunes of others many years ago, and we have done our best to act on them.