Driver blacklisted after row over black shirt

The Nelson Mail

JOB GONE: Harald Kleiven has lost his job after refusing to wear a black shirt which he says reminds him of his childhood under Nazi occupation in Norway.

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A driver who suffered under the Nazis as a child has been blacklisted by a Nelson taxi company after refusing to wear a black shirt.

Harald Kleiven objected to wearing the Nelson City Taxi Society's new uniform because of the black shirt which he considered an offensive reminder of the "wickedness" of the Nazis during World War II.

The most well known uniform of the notorious German special police force, known as the SS, was all black. .

The 70-year-old was a child in Norway during the Nazi occupation when his family were members of the resistance.

"I was 12 months old when war broke out and my soiled underwear had things like ammunition, fuses and firing caps hidden in them," he told The Press yesterday.

"My older brother told me I also on occasions was sitting on sticks of dynamite.

"The German soldiers didn't want to search soiled underwear."

His most vivid memory of the war was when his family was put up against a wall outside their home and threatened with summary execution by blackshirted Norwegian collaborators.

"We were all lined up against the wall looking down the barrels of Mausers and told we were going to die.

"My father, all five foot seven (1.7 metres) and with a mouth on him, said `you can kill us but you will never leave this village alive'."

The threat was averted but in Kleiven's mind black shirts are inextricably linked with Nazis and their sympathisers. He has never worn a black shirt in his life and has no intention of doing so.

"I don't think they [Nelson Taxis] took into account my reasons why I refused to wear a black shirt.

"It may have been 60 or 70 years ago but to people who went through it it's still a very open wound."

Kleiven was employed by Russell Moore, a member of the society, as a driver and was prevented from driving from February 9 when the new uniform kicked in.

He took the case to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) but, in a decision released yesterday, they found for the respondent.

ERA member James Crichton said Kleiven was not unjustifiably dismissed, or indeed dismissed, as Moore was ready to re-engage him as soon as the uniform issue was resolved.

He accepted the society's contention that Kleiven was not dismissed but simply blacklisted until he chose to comply with its uniform code.

However, Crichton said he thought the two parties should be able to come to an agreement.

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

But that seems unlikely.

Nelson City Taxis director Dean Mottershead said they would be happy to have him back, but only if he wore the new uniform and they would not let him wear a different dark-coloured shirt.

"While we sympathise with him ... there would be no point us putting a uniform in if we were going to allow others to wear something different," he said.

Russell Moore said he was not surprised at the ERA's determination but refused to make any further comment. He had not had any further contact with Kleiven.

Kleiven is now driving school buses and plans on driving for a living as long as he can.

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