A dramatic increase in race-related complaints of discrimination in the workplace have been recorded this year by the Equality Tribunal. Race claims now account for a third of all the cases being taken to it under the Employment Equality Act, the tribunal said yesterday.
This is double the level of cases in this area two years ago, when the race ground was cited in just 17 per cent of workplace discrimination claims. The tribunal also announced yesterday that the overall number of claims made to it last year has increased by nearly a third.
But there was a fall in the percentage of claims upheld by the tribunal. Three out of four complaints of discrimination at work were unsuccessful, while two-thirds of complaints of discrimination in access to goods and services also failed.
The most notable aspect of the figures published yesterday, however, was the increase in race-related workplace claims.
Tribunal director Melanie Pine said there had been a 70 per cent increase in the number of complaints of discrimination at work on the race ground in the first three months of this year.
"Race claims have risen from 17 per cent in 2004 to 21 per cent in 2005 and now account for 33 per cent of all claims of discrimination at work," she said.
Equality Authority chief executive Niall Crowley said the tribunal's figures "very much accorded" with the authority's experience. The authority is charged with promoting the equality agenda and combating discrimination, and can bring cases to the tribunal for adjudication.
Mr Crowley said the authority had more race-related cases in its workplace discrimination files than complaints under any other heading.
He believed the figures were indicative of "significant problems" in Irish workplaces, the scale of which was coming to light as an increasing number of migrant workers became aware of their rights and how to vindicate them.
The authority had invested a lot of resources in this area, he said, including the placing of advertisements in media used by minority communities.
Allegations of discrimination arose under a range of headings including unequal pay, excessive working hours, lack of access to statutory leave entitlements, harassment and discriminatory dismissal.
The first-quarter figures published by the tribunal yesterday showed it had received 29 claims of workplace discrimination on the race ground, followed by 19 relating to gender, 10 relating to disability and six alleging discrimination on the basis of age. A further 19 workplace cases cited more than one ground.
