Taxi driver banned for wearing santa hat

A Christmas-loving Hamilton cabbie says he was banned from working for rebelling against company orders to take off his Santa hat.

Owen "Butch" Sutton, who works for Hamilton Taxis, said the company had barred him from picking up passengers at 5pm yesterday for refusing to pay a fine for wearing the hat.

Mr Sutton said he had been given a deadline of 4pm yesterday to pay the $50 fine. He reluctantly went to the company offices this morning to pay the money because he needed the work.

He said the reason given for banning the festive headgear was that it was not part of official uniform.

Hamilton Taxis would not comment on the fine.

It was the second year Mr Sutton had worn a Santa hat while driving. He had obeyed an order last year to remove it, but had brought it out of the closet again on December 1.

"This time I thought bugger it, it's only a Christmas hat. It's not like I'm wearing the whole regalia.

"I said to them, 'where's your Christmas spirit?'

"They said it wasn't part of the uniform.

"I said, 'for God's sake, it's Christmas. Get with it'."

Mr Sutton said he liked to buy a bag of sweets on Christmas Eve to hand out to customers, "and they'll probably fine me for that too".

He described the company stance as "stupid".

- nzpa