AUCKLAND (Sachin Sharma): An Auckland based transport company has asked a Sikh employee to bring permission from New Zealand police to wear kirpan (small ceremonial sword of Sikhs) at work place.
The company Walters Transport Limited has asked employee Amandeep Singh to wear kirpan at work place after showing permission from New Zealand police to do so.
The company has resorted to do so on complaint of some other staff, which raised safety concerns, which included a man of Punjabi origin also who is learnt to have complained after personal tussle.
Company’s operations manager Rick Linton had issued letter to Amandeep Singh in June asking him to bring written permission from police to wear kirpan at work place.
In another letter to Amandeep Singh on July 27, Linton said that company hasn’t received any letter from him to show it was legal to wear kirpan at work place. The letter says that company has also approached the officials of Supreme Sikh Council who had said they were getting a letter in this regard from New Zealand police.
“As a responsible employer for other staff at the place of work we require you this letter to satisfy the legal requirements and alleviate the concerns of other staff members,” he wrote. The council has reportedly been assured by police higher ups to issue the latter permitting wearing kirpan at work place within few days.
The issue if Sikhs wearing kirpan in public or at work places has popped up time and again in New Zealand. National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi in March 2018 had demanded to change the laws to permit Sikhs to wear it in public and at work places. Police letters in 1989 and 1992 are learnt to have permitted to wear kirpan at work places but same orders are not being considered.