The recent mini cab appeal against TfL's congestion charge imposition was based on a race issue and was very ill judged except for one thing, this judgement has far more of a legal framework and TFL might wrongly hope to set a legal precedent of which our trade could unduly suffer from.
Why has the brains of our trade ignored such an important argument and why have TFL been allowed to ignore one of the key 11 Characteristics "Age" as set out In the Equalities act 2010, which completely affects thousands of London Taxi Drivers without redress. This impact was even confirmed in the TFL findings of the consultation result when it was published and mentioned a clear deprivation without financial redress?
The Taxi drivers who are most likely to suffer serious losses are drivers who are over 60 and who owned their own vehicles choosing to work Less hours as the got older and paid off their taxis hence creating far less polutions.
I read a recent letter composed by Steve Mc Namara trying to address similar point but he did not once mentioning this clear breach of The Equalities act...why not?
The Equalities Act 2010 states if a clear link of deprevation based on age as indirect discrimination does when an organisation has a particular policy or way of working that applies to everyone, but affects a specific proportion far greater than the rest it is illegal.
TFL clearly states on 2.8 paragraph 5 of the consultation decision:
The LLA included a review of impacts on groups with "Protected Characteristics".
It found that 25% of taxi drivers are aged 60 or above and therefore older drivers could be disproportunatly affected by the proposals.
Why has nobody in our unions legal world picked this up?
Why has nobody in our orgs picked up on this?
I found a freedom of information request online from TFL going back to 20th January 2017 giving a breakdown on age of active drivers as follows:
Drivers 20-24 Years old = 45 Drivers 25-29 years old = 296
Drivers 30-34 years old = 665 Drivers 35-39 years old = 1282
Drivers 40-44 years old = 2192 Drivers 45-49 years old = 3976
Drivers 50- 54 years old = 5032 Drivers 55-59 years old = 4148
Drivers 60-64 Years old = 2863 Drivers 65-69 Years old = 2159
Drivers 70-74 Years old = 1324 Drivers 75-79 Years old = 470
Drivers 80-84 Years old = 157 Drivers 85-89 Years old = 13
Total: 24,622.
The Numbers today may have lessened since 2017, but going by the above numbers for argument sake until adjusted, the over 60-64's (2863) can just as easy be adjusted to the over 65's...which in itself is a number of 4123 drivers who simply could not sign up for a new can nor are they finding it an easy task to rent due to decommissioning, & looking at it another way, does anyone really think that if another Charecteristic highlighted under the protection of the Equalities Act 2010 was targeted in their thousands by a policy of government as a consquence of policy change ( eg: by colour, religion, sexual orientation etc) and accepted regardless of public consultation?
This Consultaion was illegally and clearly constructed to remove drivers of age too....this is apparrent.
Consultation conclusion 2.8 paragraph 5 clearly uses the term 'charecteristics' as it was constructed by a lawyer with the Equalities act 2010 in mind but NOT OBSERVED, and must be urgently investigated and stopped before 1st of November 2019becomes a red line.
Drivers of age are suffering discrimination today.
Lets get a list of those drivers together urgently with their hours and losses and put it to whoever will listen, TFL are acting Bigoted and need to be stopped now.
Be Lucky
greenbadgejohn.
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