New research finds two out of five BME workers face discrimination

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According to a new report published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), it has been found that two out of five BME or ethnic minority workers have faced racism at work in the last five years.

As a result of this the TUC has urged the government to amend the law in order make employers more responsible towards ensuring such incidents based on racial discrimination do not occur and employees are more protected.

After a poll and focus group interviews involving  1,750 BME workers in the UK were conducted by researchers at Number Cruncher Politics, it was suggested that incidents of discrimination include racist bullying and harassment to more subtle forms of racism like jokes, stereotypes or being treated differently at work.

The TUC also revealed that there are 3.9 million BME employees in the country, many of whom face discrimination but don’t report such incidents mostly because they fear that they will not be taken seriously or are worried about how it will affect their relationship with colleagues.

The general secretary of TUC, Frances O’Grady, said, “This report lifts the lid on racism in UK workplaces.

“It shines a light on the enormous scale of structural and institutional discrimination BME workers face.

“Many told us they experienced racist bullying, harassment – and worse. And alarmingly, the vast majority did not report this to their employer.

“Others said ‘hidden’ institutional racism affected their day-to-day working life, from not getting training and promotion opportunities to being given less popular shifts and holidays.

“It’s disgraceful that in 2022 racism still determines who gets hired, trained, promoted – and who gets demoted and dismissed.

“This report must be a wake-up call. Ministers need to change the law so that employers are responsible for protecting their workers and preventing racism at work.

“And employers must be clear they have a zero-tolerance policy towards racism – and that they will support all staff who raise concerns about racism or who are subjected to racial abuse.”

The TUC confirmed that BME employees are at a risk of experiencing insecure and poor quality work, and that improving their rights will help tackle the problem.

Additionally, compulsory ethnicity pay gap reporting should be introduced alongside action plans by employers to ensure equal payment, the TUC suggested.

A Government spokesman said, “Our Inclusive Britain Action Plan sets out plans to build a fairer and more inclusive society, including promoting fairness in the workplace and action to tackle the ethnicity pay gap.”