Black workers face higher levels of racism and unfair treatment at work, TUC finds

The percentage of those whose ability to speak English was questioned rose to 31% from 20%. 

Reports of physical violence or threats went up from 19% in 2020 to 26%. 

Sharing of racist content on social media increased to 28% from 22%, and racist literature or music in the workplace went up to 25% from 19%.

Black workers were twice as likely as white workers to be questioned about their culture or religion in an offensive way (35% compared to 18%), have their English questioned (31% compared to 16%), or hear racist remarks (36% compared to 19%).

28% of black workers said direct managers were responsible for the last incident of unfair treatment or racism, 22% said colleagues, 16% said other managers and 12% said customers. 

Unfair treatment was most often by direct managers (35%), bullying by managers (30%) or colleagues (28%), and explicit racism by colleagues (33%) and customers (22%).

17% of black workers who faced unfair treatment, racism or harassment said they left their job after the most recent incident. 

23% wanted to leave but could not.

Data also showed that 23% of black workers said they did nothing after the latest incident, down from 28% in 2020. 

30% told a friend or family member and 27% told a colleague. 

21% reported the incident to their employer, up from 16% in 2020. 11% raised a grievance, 10% got legal advice, 10% got help from their trade union, 10% went to a community organisation and 9% took an employment tribunal case.

Black union members were more likely to report incidents to their union (18%) than non-members (10%). 

Union members were more likely to report incidents to their employer (31% compared to 18%), raise grievances, get community support and go to tribunal.

Of those who reported incidents to their employer, 69% said the issue was taken seriously. 

19% said their complaint was not believed, up from 11% in 2020. 63% said things got better after reporting, 15% said things got worse and 20% said nothing changed. 

24% said their employer took action to prevent harassment, 24% said disciplinary action was taken, 13% said other action was taken, 15% said there was an informal investigation and 19% said a formal one.

16% were transferred to another department after reporting, up from 5%. 13% were isolated from colleagues, up from 3%, and 7% were disciplined or faced a counter complaint.

60% were satisfied with their employer’s response, 18% were dissatisfied and 21% were neutral.

Common reasons for not reporting included no confidence it would be dealt with (17%), concern it would make things worse (17%) or not thinking the issue would be taken seriously (16%).

73% of black trade union members were satisfied with their union, compared to 64% of white members. 

Black workers were more likely to get support from their union on rights at work, pay negotiations and health and safety.