Race discrimination at work: what to do

Race discrimination at work is rarely announced. It usually shows up as a pattern: the promotion that never comes, the disciplinary standard applied more harshly, the comments that are always "just banter". Proving it is a question of evidence and structure, and the law gives you more help with that than most people expect.

What the law covers

Race is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. It includes colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins. Caste can also fall within it in some circumstances.

Protection applies from the moment you apply for a job, throughout employment, and after it ends, for example in references. There is no minimum length of service.

The forms it takes

• Direct discrimination. Being treated worse than someone else in comparable circumstances because of race. It cannot be justified.
• Indirect discrimination. A neutral policy that puts your racial group at a particular disadvantage and cannot be objectively justified, such as a dress code or a language requirement that goes beyond what the job needs.
• Harassment. Unwanted conduct related to race that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Intent is irrelevant, and "it was a joke" is a description, not a defence.
• Victimisation. Being treated badly because you complained about discrimination or supported someone else's complaint. This is often the clearest claim of all, because the sequence of events is documented.

Your employer can also be liable for what colleagues do, unless it can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent it. That means training and policies that are actually used, not filed.

The burden of proof

This is the part worth understanding properly. If you prove facts from which a tribunal could decide, in the absence of another explanation, that discrimination occurred, the burden shifts to your employer to prove that race played no part in the treatment.

That is why patterns matter. A single comment may not shift the burden. A comment plus a departure from the usual process plus a comparator treated better plus an unconvincing explanation often will.

Evidence that actually helps

• Comparators. Someone in a similar situation of a different race who was treated better. They can be real or hypothetical, but real is stronger.
• Statistics and patterns. Who gets promoted, who gets disciplined, who gets the good work. Ask for this data.
• Departures from process. Where the employer's own policy was not followed in your case but was in others.
• A contemporaneous diary. Dates, what was said, who was present, how you felt. Written at the time, not months later.
• Written complaints. Raise it in writing and keep the reply. Verbal complaints that vanish are the most common evidential gap in these cases.
• Data subject access request. You can require your employer to give you the personal data it holds about you, which often produces internal emails about you that you were never meant to see. It is free, and the employer normally has one month to respond.

Raising it

A grievance is usually the right first step. Keep it factual and specific: what happened, when, who was there, and why you say it was related to race. Avoid the temptation to include every grudge, because a focused grievance is harder to dismiss.

If the grievance is not taken seriously, that failure is itself evidence, and mishandling can breach trust and confidence.

Deadlines and value

Claims must normally be started within three months less one day of the act complained of, or the last act in a continuing course of conduct, with the deadline paused while ACAS early conciliation runs. Tribunals can extend time in discrimination cases where it is just and equitable, but that is a rescue, not a plan.

Compensation is uncapped. It covers financial losses, an award for injury to feelings within set bands depending on seriousness, interest, and in the worst cases aggravated damages. You can bring a claim while still employed.

Getting advice

Race discrimination claims are won on structure and evidence, and the decisions that matter are usually taken early: what goes in the grievance, what data to request, and whether to complain now or gather more first. A free enquiry puts you in front of a specialist employment solicitor who deals with these cases regularly, and that conversation is worth having before the grievance is submitted rather than after.