Race Discrimination at Work UK: Claims & Rights Guide

At a glance

• What counts as race: colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins — Equality Act 2010, s.9. A person can be protected under one or more of these.
• Four types of unlawful conduct: direct discrimination (s.13), indirect discrimination (s.19), harassment (s.26), and victimisation (s.27).
• Employer responsibility: an employer is generally treated as responsible for discrimination or harassment by its staff in the course of employment, whoever the individual is (s.109) — unless it can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
• Time limit: three months less one day from the discriminatory act (or the last act in a series), but you must go through ACAS early conciliation first — compulsory since 2014.
• Early conciliation window: extended from 6 to 12 weeks for conciliation starting on or after 1 December 2025. Time spent in conciliation is added on top of your deadline.
• Compensation: no statutory cap. Financial loss plus an injury-to-feelings award set under the Vento bands (£1,300–£62,900+ for claims presented from 6 April 2026, depending on severity), and a possible uplift of up to 25% if the employer unreasonably ignored the ACAS Code of Practice.
• Coming change: from 1 October 2026, employers become liable for race (and other) harassment of their staff by third parties — customers, clients, contractors — where they failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it (Employment Rights Act 2025, s.21).

What is race discrimination at work?

Race discrimination happens when someone is placed at a disadvantage, treated less favourably, or harassed because of their race. Under section 9 of the Equality Act 2010, race is one of nine protected characteristics and is defined to include colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins. A racial group can be made up of two or more of these characteristics combined — for example, "Black British" combines colour and nationality.

Protection under the Act applies broadly. Under section 39 it covers job applicants and employees, and equivalent provisions extend protection to workers, contract workers, and in some circumstances former employees, so the rules apply at every stage of the working relationship — recruitment, employment, and after it ends. The conduct complained of can come from an employer, a manager, a colleague, or (increasingly, as the law develops — see below) a third party such as a customer or client.

Race discrimination can be obvious — a racial slur, a refusal to promote someone because of their background — or it can be embedded in a policy that looks neutral on paper but disadvantages people of a particular racial group in practice. The Equality Act 2010 recognises four distinct legal wrongs, each with its own test.

This guide covers England and Wales. Employment tribunal procedure is broadly similar across Great Britain, but check GOV.UK for any differences if you are in Scotland.

The four types of race discrimination

Direct discrimination

Direct race discrimination, under section 13, is treating someone less favourably than others because of their race. The classic example is being passed over for a role or promotion in favour of a less qualified colleague of a different racial background, where race was the reason (or one of the reasons) for the decision. Direct discrimination cannot be justified by the employer — if it is proved, there is no "proportionate means" defence available (unlike indirect discrimination).

Indirect discrimination

Indirect race discrimination, under section 19, arises where a provision, criterion or practice (PCP) applies in the same way to everyone but puts people who share a particular racial characteristic at a particular disadvantage compared with others who don't share it, and the employer cannot show the PCP is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Unlike direct discrimination, indirect discrimination can be justified — but the employer carries the burden of proving that justification.

Example: a workplace rule requiring all staff to have been "educated to UK degree level" for a role that doesn't genuinely need one could disadvantage applicants of certain nationalities or ethnic backgrounds disproportionately, and might be indirect discrimination unless the employer can objectively justify the requirement.

Harassment

Harassment, under section 26, is unwanted conduct related to race that has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. Crucially, the effect on the recipient can be enough even where that was not the intention — although a tribunal will look at whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect. Section 40 specifically prohibits an employer from harassing (or allowing the harassment of) its employees and job applicants.

Victimisation

Victimisation, under section 27, is a separate wrong: subjecting someone to a detriment because they have done a "protected act" — such as bringing a discrimination claim, supporting someone else's claim, or raising an allegation of a breach of the Act. It protects people who speak up, even if their original complaint is not ultimately upheld, provided it was made honestly.

Who is responsible: your employer, a colleague, or a third party

Vicarious liability for colleagues and managers

Under section 109 of the Equality Act 2010, anything a person does in the course of their employment is treated as also done by their employer — regardless of whether the employer knew about it or approved of it. This means an employer can be held responsible for race discrimination or harassment by any employee, at any level of seniority, carried out in the course of their work. The employer's only defence is to show it took all reasonable steps to prevent that kind of conduct — in practice, this usually means having a genuine anti-discrimination policy, training staff on it, and a real, accessible complaints process, not just a policy that sits unused in a handbook.

Third-party harassment — the law is changing from October 2026

Employer liability for harassment carried out by people who are not employees — customers, clients, contractors, members of the public — has historically been narrower than liability for harassment by staff. This is changing under the Employment Rights Act 2025, section 21: from 1 October 2026, an employer will be liable where a third party harasses an employee in the course of their employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it — and this duty applies across all protected characteristics, including race, not just sexual harassment. If you are experiencing race-related harassment from a customer, client, or contractor now, it is still worth raising in writing with your employer, since many employers already owe wider duties (for example under health and safety law, or their own policies) — but be aware the statutory position for third-party race harassment specifically becomes clearer and stronger from October 2026.

The route to a claim: internal steps, ACAS, and the tribunal

1. Keep a clear, contemporaneous record

Write down dates, times, locations, who was involved, and what was said or done, as close to the event as possible. Save emails, messages, rota changes, appraisals, and any other documents that support your account. Most race discrimination cases turn on inference from surrounding facts rather than an open admission, so detail and timing matter enormously.

2. Raise the issue internally, where it is safe to do so

Most employers have a grievance procedure. Using it gives the employer a chance to address the issue and can strengthen your position later — both because it creates a paper trail and because the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures sets the standard tribunals expect employers to follow (see GOV.UK guidance on workplace disputes for the general framework). Put your complaint in writing, describe the conduct factually, and state that you believe it amounts to race discrimination. Keep copies of everything sent and received. If your employer unreasonably fails to follow the ACAS Code once a grievance is raised, a tribunal can later increase any compensation award by up to 25% under section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

3. Start ACAS early conciliation before the clock runs out

Before you can issue a tribunal claim, you must notify ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and take part in early conciliation — this is a compulsory, free step, not optional. A conciliator will explore, separately with you and your employer, whether the matter can be resolved without a hearing. Since 1 December 2025, the early conciliation period runs for up to 12 weeks (previously 6 weeks), following The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. Time genuinely spent in conciliation is added to your normal three-month-less-one-day time limit, which is one reason to start conciliation promptly rather than waiting.

4. Submit your ET1 claim to the employment tribunal

If conciliation does not resolve the matter, you can submit a claim using form ET1, either online or on paper, via GOV.UK's employment tribunal service. There is no fee to bring a claim. You will need to set out who discriminated against you, what happened, and which type of discrimination (direct, indirect, harassment, victimisation) you are alleging — accuracy at this stage matters, because the tribunal generally only considers the case as pleaded.

5. Prepare for disclosure and the hearing

Once the employer files its response (form ET3), the tribunal gives directions for disclosure of documents, exchange of witness statements, and preparation of a hearing bundle. Your witness statement should tell the story chronologically and stick to facts you can support with evidence. Because section 136 of the Equality Act 2010 provides that the burden of proof can shift to the employer once you have shown facts from which a tribunal could conclude discrimination occurred, a well-organised, factual account matters more than broad assertions.

What compensation can a tribunal award?

Unlike unfair dismissal, there is no statutory cap on compensation for discrimination claims, including race discrimination. A successful claimant can typically recover:

• Financial loss — lost wages, lost benefits, and the reasonable cost of looking for a new job.
• Injury to feelings — a separate award reflecting the distress caused, assessed against the Vento bands, which are reviewed annually by the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals for inflation. For claims presented on or after 6 April 2026, the bands are a lower band of £1,300–£12,600 (less serious or one-off incidents), a middle band of £12,600–£37,700 (serious cases not meriting the top band), and an upper band of £37,700–£62,900 (the most serious, prolonged, or repeated conduct), with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £62,900. Always check current guidance for the bands in force when your claim is presented, as they are reviewed each April by the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals.
• Interest on both elements, and in rare cases aggravated damages.
• A possible uplift of up to 25% on the award if the employer unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Common mistakes that weaken a race discrimination claim

• Missing the time limit. Three months less one day is short, and early conciliation, while it adds time, has its own rules about when the clock starts and stops. Do not wait until you are close to the deadline to contact ACAS.
• Treating a general sense of unfairness as discrimination. The Act requires the treatment to be because of race (or a PCP that disadvantages a racial group). Poor treatment that isn't connected to race, however unpleasant, is not covered by the Equality Act, though it may raise other employment issues.
• Not keeping contemporaneous evidence. Recollections fade and can be challenged; dated notes, saved messages, and witness names taken at the time carry far more weight than a reconstructed account months later.
• Pleading the wrong type of discrimination, or too narrowly. Direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimisation are legally distinct — a claim that only pleads one where the facts support another (or several) can lose ground unnecessarily. This is a common area where early advice pays for itself.
• Assuming a grievance must be resolved before starting ACAS conciliation. The two can often run in parallel; delaying conciliation until an internal grievance concludes can eat into your time limit.

Sources & further reading

This guide reflects the Equality Act 2010 and related employment tribunal procedure as they apply in England and Wales, including the ACAS early conciliation extension in force from 1 December 2025, the Vento bands applicable from 6 April 2026, and the third-party harassment provisions in the Employment Rights Act 2025 commencing 1 October 2026. Always check legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK for the current position, since tribunal time limits, compensation bands, and commencement dates for new provisions are all subject to change.

This is legal information, not legal advice. It explains the law of England and Wales in general terms and does not take account of your specific circumstances; reading it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. LegalDocuments.co.uk is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Discrimination claims often turn on fine factual distinctions and unforgiving time limits — for advice on your own situation, speak to our telephone legal advice service or consult a regulated solicitor.

Last reviewed: July 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: July 2027 or on legislative change.