Taxi Driver Online

(1) M J ELDRIDGE (2) BARBICAN CAR HIRE LTD v L ZHANG (2001)

EAT (Judge Peter Clark, A Gallico, B Gibbs) 19/1/2001

EMPLOYMENT - DISCRIMINATION

RACE DISCRIMINATION : COLOURED DRIVERS : TAXI TRADE : CUSTOMER PREFERENCE : ALTERNATIVE WORK FOR DRIVER : RACE RELATIONS ACT 1976 : EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT 1996

An employment tribunal had correctly found that a taxi company had racially discriminated against one of its drivers when it acceded to a customer's request not to be driven by a "coloured driver".

Appeal by a taxi company ('C') and its managing director ('M') from an employment tribunal's decision that C had racially discriminated against the respondent ('W'). W was an employee of C for the purposes of the Race Relations Act 1976 but not the Employment Rights Act 1996. His successful complaint arose after C, through M, provided W with alternative driving work after a customer indicated that she did not want to be driven by "coloured drivers". W was of Chinese origin. C and M submitted in their appeal that the tribunal had failed to consider the evidence of a particular witness ('D') and that it had impermissibly shifted the burden of proof from W to C and M.

HELD: (1) The tribunal had not failed to consider D's evidence. (2) The tribunal had not decided this case on the burden of proof; the tribunal had been unconvinced by the evidence of C and M and simply preferred W's account.

Appeal dismissed.

Ms S Brannigan instructed by Smith Braithwaite for C and M. Ms H Grewal instructed by the Commission for Racial Equality for W.
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