SOCIETY Racist attitudes persist at work

A telephone hotline for people suffering racism at work was expected to hear from just a handful of people brave enough to call. In fact nearly 100 people phoned the line set up by the Trades Union Congress, some in a desperate state, telling of both subtle and overt abuse.

The results from the hotline, although limited, have created a worrying snapshot image of racism in the workplace. The TUC is now calling on employers to beef up their equal opportunities programmes in a bid to stamp out such abuse.

A report released today reveals that the callers' main complaints were excess discipline, lack of promotion and unfair overtime allocation.

As many as 14 per cent of callers said they were more likely to be disciplined than their white colleagues, 12 per cent said they were regularly overlooked for promotion while better jobs were being given to white workers with fewer qualifications and/or less service, and a further 12 per cent said overtime was allocated on the basis of race with white workers getting more overtime opportunity than blacks.

However, of most concern was the large number of callers who said they were the subject of direct racist abuse, and that when they complained to their bosses they were often told it was their fault and that they needed to make more of an effort to "fit in".

Matthew Brace