I have spoken several times in my articles about vicarious liability, where employers are responsible for the actions of their employees. This issue is even more precarious for employers following last October’s law change requiring organisations to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment in work. In this case, during an argument in the workplaceContinue reading “Organisation wins race discrimination case despite admitting their employee called a black colleague a ‘monkey’. How? “
Category Archives: Racism
Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face! How to avoid tribunal claims for discrimination.
This is of course a famous quote from ex-heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. As in boxing, by the time you get ‘punched in the face’ with a claim for discrimination it becomes more about damage limitation than preventing it from happening in the first place. If there is evidence that discrimination happened, you are inContinue reading “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face! How to avoid tribunal claims for discrimination.”
Employers have 3 choices if a colleague makes, or keeps making, offensive remarks.
There is more and more media coverage of this, but employers really don’t need to take draconian steps and ruin their culture for fear of offending oversensitive employees. Where offensive comments are made there are 3 options, as follows: With option 1, the downsides are obvious. It really isn’t difficult to tackle this with some basicContinue reading “Employers have 3 choices if a colleague makes, or keeps making, offensive remarks.”
What should employees do if they witness discriminatory behaviour at work?
The easy answer is that they should report it or challenge the perpetrator, and support the victim. However in our experience, whether this will actually happen largely depends on the culture of the organisation. There are many companies where discriminatory remarks are not challenged and are therefore allowed. There are many reasons for this, whetherContinue reading “What should employees do if they witness discriminatory behaviour at work?”
Employers have a legal duty to tackle discriminatory remarks made by customers and suppliers to their staff
Most organisations we speak to aren’t aware of this and are unsure how to tackle it. Afterall, you can’t discipline another company’s employee! But the law very clearly puts the onus on employers to tackle discriminatory comments wherever they come from, even if it is outside their organisation and if they don’t do so theContinue reading “Employers have a legal duty to tackle discriminatory remarks made by customers and suppliers to their staff”
The curse of Whatsapp groups strikes again. What should employers do?
It started a couple of decades ago with unsavoury jokes sent by email, often discriminatory. The company wag would send a picture with a caption poking fun at a group, related to their race, sex, or sexual orientation (in the olden days before Trans existed and there were only 2 genders). The problem was thatContinue reading “The curse of Whatsapp groups strikes again. What should employers do?”
How do you know if someone will be offended if they overhear a racist comment at work?
Getting the balance right between having a healthy culture where people can have a laugh at work but without causing offence to others is tricky for employers. Everyone has different values in life based on their upbringing, life experiences, personal circumstances, religion and myriad other factors, meaning you don’t know whether a colleague will beContinue reading “How do you know if someone will be offended if they overhear a racist comment at work?”
Who decides whether an individual can be offended by an issue at work?
People seem to become offended so easily these days, often on behalf of other people. Others rail against this perceived oversentitivity – ’surely you can’t be offended by that? The world has gone mad!’ For employers, there is bad news and good news, the bad news is that there isn’t a cut off point whereContinue reading “Who decides whether an individual can be offended by an issue at work?”
The loophole that means you may win a Tribunal even if you clearly discriminate against people.
How did the UK Chinese restaurant who insisted that only Chinese applicants would be considered for a job vacancy win their race discrimination Tribunal? Likewise, how did the airline who admitted that insisting on a requirement that was clearly discrimination on the grounds of both race and sex win their Tribunal? Although it is unusual,Continue reading “The loophole that means you may win a Tribunal even if you clearly discriminate against people.”
Indirect discrimination often catches employers out, leading to some huge claims. Do you know how to avoid it?
Even the legal definition of indirect discrimination hints that it is the silent assassin of employment law. Organisations are often not even aware they may be discriminating. The definition begins by stating that such discrimination is often ‘an apparently neutral practice ….’ i.e. on the face of it the practice seems harmless. However, it isContinue reading “Indirect discrimination often catches employers out, leading to some huge claims. Do you know how to avoid it?”