A row has erupted between former Revolution Call Lane Leeds doormen and their management after they claim they were let go en-masse and then replaced.
There was a team of five Asian bouncers working at the bar and nightclub over the years but three of them claim they were told not to come back on Monday, July 25, allegedly without any notice, and the other two decided to leave because of it.
They also say they are unhappy with the actions of Phoenix Security who provide the doormen to Revolution Call Lane. A couple of the door staff say they have felt discriminated against, claiming they’ve been replaced by a team of mostly white doormen.
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But Phoenix has maintained it employs a “vast number” of staff from BME (black and minority ethnic) communities and that it’s “unfair and inaccurate” to suggest the firings were racially motivated. Plus it has claimed to have offered the doormen alternative roles.
Rabwanaz Ali, 36, worked at Revolution Call Lane for two years, said: “The whole team is being replaced by all white people, what’s going on there?”
“It makes me very angry and upset. At the end of the day, we put our lives on the line for these people.”
The Chapel Allerton man of Muslim Pakistani background has said he’s been “glassed” outside the venue and found himself in countless situations where he’s risked his life. Rabwanaz was one of the staff members who wasn’t told to leave but claims he was unhappy with how the rest of the team were treated.
Former head doorman Qudratullah ‘Q’ Azizi, 33, who was working at the venue for more than three years, said that he was told not to come back without any notice. He’s worried about how he’ll provide for his four sons, aged one, four, six and nine, and pay for his rent and energy bills with the sudden loss of income.
Q said: “With Phoenix Security, now I see the true faces of everyone. The way they’ve done this to me, that is dirty.
“I’ve got rent to pay, food and kids, clothes, bills and everything – and it’s all so high. All these things. I’d been working for these guys [Phoenix Security] for six to seven years. I’d been running Revolution for three years.
“I’ve been feeling down in every single way and I’m very very angry.”
Bradford man Akaash Ramzan, 22, say that he had been working at the venue for more than two years but claims he was told not to come back, allegedly without any notice. He said: “Phoenix are going to say whatever they want to cover their backs. No one has thought about us, about whether we’ve got any bills to sort.
“It’s almost as if Phoenix had already pre-planned getting a new door team with at least a week in advance that they were going to get rid of us. Nobody had the decency to tell us.
“I was definitely not offered an alternative role."
'Operational necessity'
Phoenix Security insists the bouncers were all offered alternative roles in the same area and that they had been let go due to "operational necessity".
A spokesperson for Phoenix Security said: “The allegations made by the team of Door Supervisors are factually incorrect and their removal from this particular venue was one of operational necessity, they have not been dismissed and alternative roles have been identified and offered to each of them in the same area.
“This is an internal HR matter, all our staff know the HR procedures as outlined in our company handbook.
“Phoenix Security prides itself on being an inclusive employer with a vast number of our staff nationally being from the BME communities throughout the UK including within our Management Team and Head Office staff, to suggest there is any racial motivation associated with this matter is unfair and inaccurate.
“The security sector has a rich mix of diversity in all areas and we welcome applications from staff who are representative of the many diverse communities where our services are required.”
Revolution Call Lane, which is part of the the Revolution Bars Group, declined to comment.
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