Racial harassment

Surveys by the Commission for Racial Equality (now part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) over many years have drawn attention to the extent of racial harassment, with tribunal proceedings just the tip of the iceberg.

In 2003, the TUC published its report, Black voices at work, based on a series of in-depth interviews with black and ethnic minority workers. Interviewees reported racist language, management paying only lip-service to equal opportunities policies, being passed over for promotion, and more subtle forms of discrimination. This research followed the findings of a TUC study, based on calls to the TUC’s Root Out Racism hotline which ran for five days in June 2000 and took nearly 450 calls. Callers reported an appalling catalogue of verbal abuse, often resulting in their taking time off sick with stress, depression and anxiety.

A revealing survey was carried out in 2009. A government “sting” operation targeted hundreds of UK employers and uncovered widespread racial discrimination against workers with African and Asian names. Researchers sent nearly 3,000 job applications using false identities but similar experience and qualifications, a British education and work histories. Applicants with “white-sounding” names were significantly more successful in securing an interview than those whose names sounded “ethnic”. The occupations covered nine different sectors, ranging from highly qualified positions such as accountants and IT technicians to less well-paid jobs such as care workers and sales assistants. The report found public sector employers less likely to discriminate than private sector employers.

An HSE report, Ethnicity, work characteristics, stress and health, found that considerably more non-white workers (28%) reported high levels of stress compared to white workers (19%). The research confirmed an earlier study, the Bristol stress and health at work study, which revealed that 30% of non-white workers reported very high or extremely high levels of stress at work, compared to 18% of white workers. The study concluded that “racial discrimination, particularly in combination with gender and ethnicity, was identified as having a strong influence on work stress”. It also showed that black Caribbean women were most likely to report high work stress, compared with women and men from other backgrounds. Discrimination manifests itself in verbal racial abuse, unfair work practices and being less valued by management.

Research produced for the Dignity at Work Partnership project (A review of black and minority ethnic (BME) employee experience of workplace bullying) is available to download from the Unite website. Among its findings, this research suggests that despite evidence of racism in the workplace, its presence is often denied because of its profoundly negative connotations and potential for punitive sanctions against individuals and organisations. In particular, the report suggests that an increase in equalities legislation has led to some forms of negative behaviour becoming more covert, making it more difficult to identify and tackle.

There were 5,000 claims for race discrimination accepted by the employment tribunal in 2010-11. The median tribunal award for race discrimination was £6,277.