Marvin Onumonu41% of black workers said they experienced racist jokes or “banter” at work, according to the ‘No worker left behind 2026’ report from the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
The report found that black workers still faced racism, job insecurity and unfair treatment in workplaces across the UK.
45% said they were given harder or less popular tasks, while 43% said they received unfair criticism.
41% were kept on temporary or fixed term contracts.
The share of Black workers not given enough hours increased to 40% from 30% in 2020.
The number not offered overtime rose to 37% from 30%, and those kept on temporary contracts went up to 41% from 33%.
Black women were more likely than black men to be kept on temporary contracts (44% compared to 37%), denied training (38% compared to 34%) and given harder tasks (46% compared to 43%).
Black men were more likely to be singled out for redundancy (31% compared to 22%) or denied promotion (40% compared to 35%).
The research also found that reports of racist remarks, verbal abuse and intimidation had all increased since 2020.
36% of black workers said they witnessed racist verbal or physical abuse, 36% heard racist remarks, and 35% experienced verbal abuse.
35% said people questioned their culture or religion in an offensive way.
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.
