Taxi Driver Online

The Guardian (London)

October 25, 1997

'Apartheid' in city taxis condemned ;

1,000 pounds for Asian driver rejected by 'whites only' firm

A TAXI co-operative which dominates the market in one of Britain's biggest conurbations was censured yesterday for operating a "whites only" driver policy.

But an industrial tribunal also warned against the growth of a "counter -monopoly" in Leeds by another firm whose drivers are overwhelmingly of Asian origin.

The situation was described as "amounting to apartheid" by the city's Racial Equality Council, which represented Sadaf Hussain, aged 28, of Undercliffe in Bradford. He was awarded pounds 1,000 for his hurt feelings in failing to get work with Streamline taxis, a co-operative which runs the biggest and most lucrative service in the city. The co-op is expected to appeal.

The tribunal heard Mr Hussain had seven years' experience driving in Leeds. He bought a Streamline cab from a retiring, white driver but failed to find a sponsor from the other 196 Streamline drivers, a requirement for admission to the co-op. The tribunal heard that the retiring driver, Billy Mews, had warned him Streamline had only one non-white and that "they wouldn't let you in".

John Roberts, director of equality council, added that the solitary Asian driver was also alone in the total of 405 members of Streamline and another major Leeds company, Telecabs. The city's third major outfit, Citycabs, was dominated by Asians, with only nine drivers from other communities.

"There is evidence that white drivers train with Citycabs but move on for the better money at the other firms." He said it was a disgrace that Leeds had an "apartheid system", and the council would back other cases against the companies until they changed their rules. He also believed the tribunal ruling had implications for other cities where similar situations existed.

Javaid Akhtar, chair of Citycabs, said that what was going on had been known about for years. "It is very welcome that at last the law has been used to do something to get rid of this discrimination."

The chair of the tribunal, John Prophet, said: "For many years now this situation has been allowed to develop in this area, one of the main conurbations in England, by which most taxi services have been controlled by three major organisations. Two embrace virtually exclusively white members and the other has predominantly Asian members.

"It seems to this tribunal that all these bodies ought to give urgent attention to changing their procedures so that a racial mix can develop."

The tribunal was told by Streamline's chairman, Wilfred Cann, that driver sponsorship had been introduced in 1983 to weed out bad drivers. The co-op said that no taxi-proprietors had been taken on since, and there was a long waiting list.

But the tribunal ruled there had been intentional discrimination.
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