Taxi driver refuses uniform over Nazi reminder

A taxi driver who was suspended for refusing to wear a black shirt because it reminded him of "wickedness" of the Nazi Reich, should try to come to an agreement with his employer, the Employment Relations Authority says.

Harald Kleiven worked as a taxi driver for Russell Moore, who was a member of the Nelson City Taxi Society.

During 2008 the society adopted a uniform for their drivers that included a black shirt, which was to come into effect on February 9 this year.

Mr Kleiven was suspended for refusing to wear the garment.

He told the ERA the shirt was an offensive reminder of the "wickedness perpetrated by agents of the Nazi Reich throughout continental Europe".

During World War 2 Mr Kleiven was a Norwegian national.

"He described ... a particularly unpleasant exchange in which his whole family (himself as a small boy included) were put up against a wall outside their home and threatened with summary execution by black-shirted Norwegian collaborators, for some minor transgression against the occupying Nazi forces," ERA member James Crichton said.

"Mr Kleiven sees the black shirt to be worn by the society staff and members as a reminder of those tragic days in the Second World War and he does not wish to traumatise himself, or indeed be seen perpetrating the black shirt myth by wearing a uniform comprising of a black shirt."

Mr Crichton said he was satisfied the society had a legal right to insist its staff wore a uniform.

Mr Moore, speaking for the society, said that while he had the highest regard for Mr Kleiven and he was an asset to the business, the society felt it could not make an exception for him in regards to wearing the shirt.

Mr Kleiven said because of the policy he had been unjustifiably dismissed and should be awarded compensation.

Mr Crichton found Mr Kleiven had not been dismissed from the company, rather he had been "blacklisted", so there was no question of compensation.

"It may be possible for the society and Mr Kleiven to come to terms where perhaps the society might re-think its refusal to give Mr Kleiven an exemption, given his passionate belief that the present uniform shirt is a symbol of past evil," Mr Crichton said.

- NZPA