“SOUL destroying racial discrimination is rife in the workplace,” campaigners warned tody, after the TUC revealed research showing two-fifths of black and minority ethnic workers (BME) have faced racism at work.

The union body’s new report highlighted the heightened risk that hundreds of thousands of BME employees face and demanded Tory ministers introduce legislation to make employers more responsible for protecting their staff. 

Many of the 1,750 BME workers polled for the TUC by researchers at Number Cruncher Politics reported discrimination ranging from racist bullying and harassment to more “hidden racism like jokes, stereotypes or being treated differently at work.”

More than half of the 18-34-year-olds polled said they had been racially abused at work in the last five years, while one in five of all those surveyed described having racist remarks directed at them or made in their presence.

The vast majority did not tell their employer, which the TUC said was largely because of fears of not being taken seriously or concerns about how it will affect working relationships with colleagues.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This report lifts the lid on racism in UK workplaces.

“It shines a light on the enormous scale of structural and institutional discrimination BME workers face.

“It’s disgraceful that in 2022 racism still determines who gets hired, trained, promoted — and who gets demoted and dismissed.

“This report must be a wake-up call. Ministers need to change the law so that employers are responsible for protecting their workers and preventing racism at work.

“And employers must be clear they have a zero-tolerance policy towards racism.”

Improving workers’ rights for everyone would help because BME workers are significantly more likely to be stuck on zero-hours contracts and in other insecure and poor-quality working conditions, said Ms O’Grady, who also repeated her call for compulsory ethnicity pay gap reporting.

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts co-founder Zita Holbourne told the Morning Star that she was “sadly not surprised” by the report.

“Racism in the labour market and employment is rife, from covert to blatant, from racist harassment and bullying to discrimination in appraisal, promotion and progression — it is encountered every day,” she warned.

“It is soul destroying, tiring and draining having to deal with the stress and trauma of it on one hand and having to be determined in facing, tackling and challenging it on the other.”

Ms Holbourne urged workers to join a union and “be an active part of it” to push for change and called for bosses to “shape up and take action.

“They cannot just add a slogan of Black Lives Matter to their mission and equality statements — if black lives truly matter to them, they must root out racism and have zero tolerance, plus take a hard line against perpetrators,” she said.

“We have had too many reports telling us what we live and breathe and know every day, that racism exists. What we need is action to address it.”

Labour’s shadow women and equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi blasted the “shocking findings” and backed the TUC’s call for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting.

She urged ministers to introduce a race equality Act to “tackle structural racial inequality at source,” saying: “For 12 years the Conservatives have been in denial about the scale of the problem.”

A government spokesman said: “Our ‘inclusive Britain action plan’ sets out plans to build a fairer and more inclusive society, including promoting fairness in the workplace and action to tackle the ethnicity pay gap.”