If your ethnic origin is a minority in the UK, such as being black or Asian, the sad situation is that you’re more likely to suffer racial harassment or discrimination at work.
The TUC recently surveyed 5,000 people in a poll called Racism Ruins Lives. They found that 65% of all BAME participants reported racial harassment at work in the past five years, and 49% said they were treated unfavourably by their employer because of race. 46% claimed they had been subjected to racist jokes and verbal abuse at work. One-third reported bullying and ignorant or insenstive questions, and 11% had experienced racist violence.
The impact on BAME staff was also covered in the study. 62% said workplace racism impacted their mental health and stress, and 56% said it negatively impacted their work. 28% had taken sick leave as a result, and a significant proportion said they’d actually left a job because of workplace racism.
If it happens to you, the good news is that you have the right to make a claim. That’s what Richard Hastings did, and was awarded £1m.
Richard (who is of African Caribbean origin) was an IT manager at King’s College NHS Foundation Trust.
In July 2015, he was involved in an altercation in the hospital car park. When a van sped past him aggressively, he approached it, intending to note its registration number.
The driver, Mr Archard, was abusive towards him, and they got into a ‘war of words’.
As a result, Richard was suspended, and in October 2015, he was dismissed for gross misconduct.
At the tribunal, Judge Sage said the investigation was fundamentally flawed, by assuming that the white witnesses were the victims and that Richard was the aggressor. He found the Trust guilty of unfair dismissal and racial discrimination. He was awarded such substantial damages due largely to his loss of pension having worked for the Trust for 19 years.
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