From the guardian website -

The DWP has offered to allow its male staff to turn up for work without a tie if thousands of compensation claims are dropped, it emerged today.

Around 8,000 men working at Jobcentres were preparing to claim compensation after a clerk at the DWP won an employment tribunal claim of sex discrimination last year.

The DWP appealed against the decision and won the right to a second tribunal later this year, but the department has now offered not to pursue the case if the compensation claims are dropped.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/whitehall/story/0,9061,1147569,00.html