Taxi dispatcher says driver hugged, kissed her in cab but company wanted to 'keep me quiet'

A former taxi dispatcher says she was sexually assaulted by a cab driver while at work and the taxi company didn't take the incident seriously even though it was caught on the taxi's camera.

Hollie Ferguson was a dispatch supervisor working for Unicity Taxiin Winnipeg when the driver hugged and kissed her in March 2014. She decided to come forward and tell her story to CBC News after reading recent news stories about women being solicited for sex by cab drivers.

"It's only getting worse, it's not getting better and I figured that people needed to hear the truth of how these things are handled, and worse yet, how they're not handled," Ferguson said.

CBC News has reported that two women said they believe they were propositioned for sex by drivers at Duffy's Taxi in two separate incidents earlier this month.

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In Ferguson's case, the incident happened near the end of her shift when she left the Unicity Taxi office to go and help one of the drivers who needed his car's onboard computer fixed.

"It was a huge violation," Ferguson said, adding as they left the building he made remarks about her appearance.

"The driver had made some comments about the shirt I was wearing saying that looks really good on you, you should wear things like that more often. And I was a little creeped out, but you know, things like that happen," she said.

While the two were sitting in the taxi, she worked on the computer and "then he leaned over to me like he was going to hug me and I was creeped out at first but I figured it was just a hug, there was no harm in that. So I leaned forward to sort of hug him back, and then he leans forward and he kissed me on the lips," Ferguson said.

"And I was in shock. It was completely unexpected. It was not something that I wanted," she said.

"It was extremely awkward. All I wanted to do was get out of here. But I was worried that if I made a scene that he might get angry," Ferguson said.

"What was to stop him from just turning on the car and starting to drive or something like that? My mind wasn't being entirely rational but I was just afraid of his reaction. What would happen if I made him mad? So I was just sort of laughing it off a bit."

Ferguson informed management about the incident and also notified her union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832. She filed a police report but decided not to press charges after she said police told her there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges and a judge would probably throw the case out.

"I says, 'What am I going to tell my husband when I get home? My god. Is it because of the shirt I am wearing?'" she said.

"Maybe I should have known better than to even lean in for a hug.Everyone is going to think it is my fault."

50 per cent responsible

"I felt like I was being blamed for what happened and [the manager] said to me, 'Well, we've talked to him and we've determined that you were 50 per cent responsible for what happened,'"Ferguson added. "I think that they had wanted to keep me quiet.

"I felt pressured into giving him a hug in the first place, I felt kind of coerced. And [the manager)]is like, 'How would you feel coerced?' I said, you know, because he's a shareholder."

"That driver in particular, he owned his car. He's a shareholder. And I know that at these companies they favour shareholders, they do everything they can to make sure they don't get in trouble."

Ferguson said management's initial handling of the incident made it worse for her.

"The first response from the manager when she heard was, 'Who told you to go to the police?' And when I told her it had been my idea she said, 'Well I'll let you know you were stupid to do that because now the Taxicab Board knows, the board of directors know, and you put me in a very tough position.'"

"I felt targeted. Keep the status quo, don't rock the boat, and they were successful to a degree trying to make me doubt myself, and trying to make me blame myself for what happened.

"It wasn't OK."

Ferguson continued to work at the taxi company following the incident but left in 2015.

'Absolutely inappropriate'

Unicity Taxi now has a different general manager, Tanya Peters, who acknowledged Thursday the driver's actions were wrong.

"Absolutely inappropriate. One hundred per cent inappropriate. It should never have happened," Peters said.

"I don't care if it's consensual or not, nothing should be happening in a taxi, nothing at all. Even outside of a taxi, they're both the faces of the company at that point," she said.

But she also faulted Ferguson for dressing inappropriately at work and drawing unnecessary attention to herself.

UFCW Local 832 confirmed its investigation found Ferguson's complaint had merit. A union representative watched the video taken from inside the cab and said it corroborated her story.

Driver apologized

Although it initially met with some resistance from Unicity, the union said the company eventually co-operated to deal with the issue.

"What ultimately happened was they were forced to do a proper investigation," Ferguson said, "I was given a verbal apology from the driver at a meeting that was held with the manager, a couple of board members and my union representation."

Ferguson had hoped the driver would receive some sensitivity training but said the company flatly refused. He was not suspended but the union said the company made sure he did not come into contact with Ferguson during the investigation.

Ultimately, Ferguson believes the company should have done more to discipline the driver and said her incident is representative of a larger problem regarding sexual misconduct on the part of taxi drivers.

"There's a lot of good drivers out there but the ones that are not good people they are being told that they can get away with this behaviour. And they're being told that it's OK for them to do this because all they have to do is if someone reports it is they just have to wait it out and then they will be allowed to do it again," she said.

"When this is reported, it needs to be taken seriously," she said.

At Unicity, Peters said it is takenseriously. "We definitely follow through on every single complaint."

But she added, "A lot of allegations that come across, they're false allegations. Or they're misconceptions...they're not legit."

Peters said customers who feel that a driver has been sexually inappropriate with them should file a complaint with the Taxicab Board or the police.

Taxi services in Winnipeg are regulated by the Taxicab Board under the Manitoba Taxicab Act. The board did not respond to requests for comment.

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"This is an extremely unfortunate situation that led to our member feeling victimized twice due to the lack of initial support from the company after the incident took place which is very concerning to the union, " UFCWLocal 832 said in a statement.

"Once the union got involved in support of the member, the company did its due diligence based on its legal obligation under Article 35 of the collective agreement by investigating the matter in a timely and appropriate fashion which led to a resolve that was to the satisfaction of the member," the union said.

Taxi dispatcher says driver hugged, kissed her in cab but company wanted to 'keep me quiet'

8 years ago

Duration 2:21

A former taxi dispatcher says she was sexually assaulted by a cab driver while at work and the taxi company didn't take the incident seriously even though it was caught on the taxi's camera.

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