Review 22.5
11 April - 24 April, 1997

Ever called up a car rental company only to find the initially accommodating voice on the other end suddenly turn cold after hearing your name, Izzy Rosenbloom, or your residential address, Caulfield?

Avis Rent-A-Car, already defending charges filed last November alleging that one of its North Carolina franchise owners routinely refused to rent cars to African-Americans, is now caught in a storm over allegations that the company discriminates against Jews. Former Avis rental agents claim they were instructed to refuse requests from ultra-religious Jewish residents of Oklahoma, who they tried to identify by their accents and residential addresses in densely populated Jewish areas.

In a sworn affidavit filed in a North Carolina court earlier this month, Elaine Rodgers, a former employee at Avis' World Reservation Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said that the term "yeshivas" was used to designate callers the company didn't want to rent to. She said that a policy was developed to deny corporate accounts to businesses owned by religious Jews. Rodgers' testimony was supported by five other Tulsa Avis rental agents, who said that businesses owned by Hassidic religious Jews were code-named "Yeshivas" and denied rental availability from Avis.

John Carley, chief counsel for Avis, said that the allegations stemmed from incidents where callers under the minimum rental age of 25 had improperly rented cars by claiming to be employed at local Jewish religious schools, or Yeshivas. But Bill Ward, who worked in Avis' Tulsa office until January this year, said that he understood the "yeshiva" policy to be "an unwritten code" about religion and nothing to do with under age drivers.

Accusations that Avis refused accounts to people with Jewish accents or Jewish sounding names have led two prominent New York State legislators to investigate the complaints, promising "swift and severe" action if the allegations are proven. State Assembly Democrats also unveiled two bills they intend to pass should the accusations prove to be correct. The bills would effectively prohibit companies from refusing to rent vehicles on the basis of creed, religion, marital status, gender or physical disability of a qualified driver, or on the basis of where a driver resides.

Avis America attempted to remove one of their franchises, John Dalton, who had allegedly refused car rental to African-Americans from his branches in North and South Carolina, but a federal judge refused the motion to remove Dalton until the discrimination case has been settled.

But Avis has refused to accept the complaints of anti-Semitism. In a media release distributed by its US office, Avis states: "The allegation that Avis instructed employees to discriminate against Jews is ridiculous and completely false. In the opinion of Avis, it appears to be part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to vilify Avis by unproven allegations. Avis believes the people orchestrating this campaign are Washington lawyers who hope to intimidate the company into settling a lawsuit they commenced , but apparently do not want to try."

The New York Stock Exchange promptly reflected the widespread concern over the controversy. Stock of Avis' parent company HFS shed US$1.25 from its market price of $66.00 on news of the charges the same day that the Dow Jones recorded significant gains.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the American Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said he had spoken with Avis and said afterwards he was "satisfied that this isn't Avis policy and if it did happen, it was an aberration." He said the State Human Rights Division had received no substantive complaints in recent years about Avis, nor had the ADL fielded any complaints of discrimination from Jewish Avis customers. However, Foxman added that although the anti-Semitism allegations against Avis seem to be isolated incidents rather than company policy, the controversy may indicate a larger problem of discrimination in corporate America. He pointed to the Texaco case and the US Air Force's exclusion of people with Jewish sounding names from a project in Saudi Arabia. Foxman said the number of discrimination cases involving Jews recorded by the US Equal Opportunity Commission had risen 63 per cent in the past six years.

Unwritten policies of discrimination in the corporate world are proving to be among the most difficult to unearth, combat and prevent. The charge against Avis Rent-A-Car Inc. follows hot on the heels of the racism and anti-Semitism lawsuits brought against Texaco Inc. and British Airways by former employees.

In corporate America and Australia, Jews, blacks, women and other minority groups benefit from legal prohibitions from discriminatory work practices. But even with substantial legislative safeguards, and in apparent educated, white collar work environments, minority groups are still struggling to break those glass ceilings. NOTE: Avis Australia has not been accused of adopting the same offensive policies as its American counterpart. Avis' public relations representative, Anthony Lowe of the Roland PR company, told the Review "[The charges in America] don't have anything to do with Avis in Australia; we're a separate entity."