ALMOST 60 per cent of people who have experienced discrimination took no action as a result of their experience, and only one in 10 made any “official” or legal complaint according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Young people, the unemployed, non-Irish nationals and those with a non-white ethnic background were the least likely to complain or take action on foot of discrimination.
Nearly a fifth of adults who took part in the equality and discrimination survey last year said they had no understanding of their rights under Irish equality legislation.
Unemployed people were more likely than non-Irish people to say they had been discriminated against, with 22 per cent of the unemployed claiming discrimination as opposed to 20 per cent of non-Irish nationals.
However, the highest level of discrimination, 29 per cent, was reported by those who describe their ethnicity as “non-white”.
The same three groups were the most likely to say they had experienced work-related discrimination, while the highest rates of discrimination accessing services were among non-whites, followed by people with disabilities and non-Irish nationals.
The most common complaint in relation to workplace discrimination was of bullying or harassment (28 per cent) and working conditions (24 per cent).
The respondents were far less likely to feel they had been discriminated against in relation to issues of promotion and pay, cited by just 9 per cent and 6 per cent respectively of those who felt they had suffered workplace discrimination.
Those with the least knowledge of their rights were people whose highest level of education was primary or lower; people with disabilities; non-Irish; non-white; those on “home duties”; and the over-65s.
Those with the poorest knowledge of their rights were the least likely to take action or make a complaint in relation to discrimination they felt they had suffered. Almost three-quarters of people who had experienced discrimination and reported they had no understanding of their rights under Irish equality law had taken no action following the discrimination.
The survey focused on the nine grounds of discrimination defined in law as gender, civil status, family status, age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and membership of the Traveller community.
At 22 per cent, race was the most common ground identified by those who felt they had experienced discrimination, followed at 19 per cent by age. The grounds cited differed depending on the type of discrimination perceived to have been suffered. Age and gender were the most common grounds cited by people who felt they had been discriminated against in their dealings with financial institutions. In the area of obtaining housing people were more likely to cite race and family status.
More than 40 per cent of people who felt they had been discriminated against could not determine which of the nine grounds applied to their situation, or felt they had been discriminated on some unlisted grounds and recorded their discrimination as “other” on the survey.
