One in 5 Britons have felt workplace discrimination, survey finds
One in five working-age Britons say they have faced discrimination at work within the past year, according to research that underlines the need to strengthen the system for workers to seek redress through the courts.
A survey by the Resolution Foundation think-tank, published on Tuesday, found that 8mn people aged 18-64 felt they had missed out on a job, promotion, training opportunity or suffered other disadvantages because of a characteristic that should have been protected in law.
Ageism affected the largest numbers, with the survey pointing to 3.7mn people who felt they had suffered discrimination on that basis — including 16 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 11 per cent of those aged between 55 and 65.
Hannah Slaughter, senior economist at the think-tank, said the research showed discrimination remained “all too common in workplaces today”, and pointed to the need for the government to bolster enforcement of workers’ rights and help low-paid workers take action through the courts.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, responsible for tackling the issue, has had four-fifths of its funding cut in real terms since 2008, leaving it able to take on only a small number of key cases.
But the employment tribunal system — the main route of redress — favours higher paid employees who are better able to fund a long legal process and more likely to gain, since out-of-court settlements are frequent and generally related to earnings.
The Foundation found that low-paid workers earning less than £20,000 were in 2017 around half as likely to take their employer to court as those earning £40,000 or more.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Delphine Strauss
