Race Discrimination

What is race discrimination?

The law makes it unlawful to treat some one differently because of their race. Employers however very rarely do so openly and it can be difficult to prove a decision or omission made by an employer was because of someone’s race.

How is race defined?

Race is defined as:

• skin colour
• nationality
• ethnic origin
• county of origin.

What protection does the Equality Act offer?

Race discrimination occurs when you are treated unfairly because of your skin colour, your nationality, your ethnic origin or county of origin.

Race also covers ethnic and racial groups. This means a group of people who all share the same protected characteristic of ethnicity or race. A racial group can be made up of two or more distinct racial groups, for example black Britons, British Asians, British Sikhs, British Jews, Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers. You may be discriminated against because of one or more aspects of your race, for example people born in Britain to German parents could be discriminated against because they are British citizens, or because of their German national origins.

Who can make a claim for race discrimination?

The protection against race discrimination is offered to job applicants, all employees, trainees, contract workers, office holders, consultants and individuals who are self-employed.

What is protected by the Equality Act?

The law is designed to protect individuals from race discrimination in the workplace in all aspects of employment, including:-

• dismissal
• employment terms and conditions
• pay and benefits
• promotion and transfer opportunities
• training
• recruitment
• redundancy

Types of race discrimination

There are four main types of age discrimination.

1. Direct discrimination
2. Indirect discrimination
3. Harassment
4. Victimisation

What is direct race discrimination?

This happens when someone treats you worse than another person in a similar situation because of your race. For example an employer chooses not to offer you a job because it does not wish to have disabled people in their workplace.

Direct disability discrimination falls into three types. If you are treated less favourably of because of:

• their own race (ordinary direct discrimination)
• their perceived race (direct discrimination by perception)
• their association with someone of a particular race (direct discrimination by association).

What is indirect race disability discrimination?

Indirect race discrimination happens when an employer has a particular  policy, practice, procedure or workplace rule that applies to everyone but which puts people of a particular race at a disadvantage.

Indirect race discrimination can be permitted (in limited circumstances) if the employer is able to show that there is a good enough reason for the policy. This again is known as objective justification. The employer would need to be able to prove this in the tribunal, if necessary.

Race discrimination by association

It’s unlawful to discriminate against you because someone you’re with or someone you know belongs to a certain racial group. This could be a parent, child, partner or friend.

Race discrimination by perception

It’s against the law if someone discriminates against you because they think you belong to a certain racial group even though you don’t.

Harassment

When unwanted conduct related to a person's race causes a distressing, humiliating or offensive environment for that person.

Harassment can never be justified. However, if an organisation or employer can show it did everything it could to prevent people who work for it from behaving like that, you will not be able to make a claim for harassment against it, although you could make a claim against the person who committed the harassment.

Victimisation

This is when you are treated badly because you have made a complaint of race discrimination under the Equality Act. It can also occur if you are supporting someone who has made a complaint of disability discrimination.