Racism complaints outnumber sex discrimination cases for first time

Racism has overtaken gender discrimination for the first time in cases taken under the Employment Equality Act, it emerged yesterday.

Mr Niall Crowley, Equality Authority chief executive, said racism now accounted for more than one third of cases, while gender discrimination complaints accounted for 26.2 per cent of cases. Race-related complaints include difficult working conditions, dismissal and harassment.

Doing nothing in response to ethnic diversity in the workplace was both "risky and wasteful", Mr Crowley said, as companies ended up giving ad-hoc responses to problems as they arose.

Mr Crowley was speaking at the launch of the fourth Anti-Racist Workplace Week yesterday. The event was launched by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, who said no one should dread going to work for fear of being victimised or bullied.

He said employers often gave preferential treatment to "native" Irish employees.Because immigrant workers were perceived as having fewer family ties, they often ended up working longer hours, he said.

"We have to be on our guard constantly against the more subtle forms of discrimination because an immigrant worker is going to notice if he or she ends up working extra hours or doing the less palatable work in the workplace," Mr McDowell said. "And that is a form of racism and it's sometimes done entirely unconsciously as a result of not just thinking through strategies in the workplace," he said.

He said migrant workers had played a key role in the economy's success. Asked about the spouses of Filipino nurses, who are not allowed to work here, he said it was "wrong" that such highly-qualified people were disqualified from playing any part in the Irish economy.

"I think that's really something which we have to face up to immediately and show a different face from Government on that issue," Mr McDowell said.

Ms Shalini Sinha, presenter of RTÉ's Mono series, said racism was not just about meanness, attacks or explicit jokes. It was about undermining people's abilities and qualifications in the workplace and limiting their development and progress.