Tackling Discrimination - Employees United Union
Employees United Union was established in 2011 by a small group of experienced trade union representatives and like minded community leaders who sought to create an labour organisation which would provide services to its members on a more personal level.
Our longest standing members will attest to our commitment to provide advice, representation and support by guiding them through their difficulties at work from an initial dispute to a resolution. We pride ourselves on this approach at a time when at peak times of national industrial action, we have become aware that some of the largest unions have become so inundated with requests for assistance that it may take days and sometimes weeks for a member of staff or a trade union representative to respond to a members enquiry for assistance. Employment disputes are highly stressful and frequently cause considerable anxiety amongst members who can feel helpless in the absence of dedicated support and expert advice on employment matters. We are acutely aware of this and we always endeavour to be able to avoid this understandable source of angst as far as is reasonably possible.
Employees United Union seeks to respond to member enquiries as soon as possible and rarely are members left more than a few days before being contacted and provided with advice and advocacy services by expert and highly experienced representatives to support them.
Further, whilst we will provide expert and professional advice on all Employment Law matters, Employees United Union specialises its expertise in addressing issues which would fall the remit of the ‘protected characteristics’ of the Equality Act 2010.
Despite the protections afforded to groups which fall within the remit of s.5-12 & 17-18 Equality Act 2010, all of those groups are statistically more likely to encounter discriminatory behaviour in the workplace despite the legislation celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.
In October 2018, the Equality & Human Rights Commission published its Research Report 119, ‘Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain’ at a time when nationalism was on the rise. It was the first national survey in over a decade and its findings paved the way for its 2022 report which specifically looked at employment trends in relation the ‘protected characteristics’ as defined by the Equality Act 2010. Amongst the Commissions findings were the following:
- 70% of Muslims surveyed experienced religion-based prejudice
- 64% of people from a black ethnic background experienced race-based prejudice
- 61% of people with a mental health condition experienced impairment based prejudice, and
- 46% of lesbian, gay or bisexual people experienced sexual orientation based prejudice.[1]
In relation to attitudes, the report found that:
Nearly three-quarters of people in Britain (74%) agreed that there should be equality for all groups in Britain, but one in ten (10%) people surveyed disagreed.
More people expressed openly negative feelings towards some protected characteristics (44% towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, 22% towards Muslims, and 16% towards transgender people) than towards others (for example, 9% towards gay, lesbian or bisexual people, 4% towards people aged over 70, and 3% towards disabled people with a physical impairment).
A quarter expressed discomfort with having a person with a mental health condition as their boss (25%) or as a potential family member (29%). Around one-fifth of respondents said they would feel uncomfortable if either an immigrant or a Muslim person lived next door (19% and 18% respectively), and 14% said they would feel uncomfortable if a transgender person lived next door.
Around a third of British adults felt that efforts to provide equal opportunities had gone ‘too far’ in the case of immigrants (37%) and Muslims (33%). In contrast, nearly two-thirds thought that such efforts had ‘not gone far enough’ for people with a mental health condition (63%) or people with a physical impairment (60%).[2]
The Report also highlighted the disconnect between perceptions of discrimination and actual beliefs,
People’s perceptions of the seriousness of discrimination in Britain in relation to different protected characteristics did not match levels of personal experiences of discrimination. For example, more than half (54%) thought that the issue of discrimination based on age was not at all or only slightly serious, despite more British adults reporting experiences of prejudice based on their age (26%) than any other protected characteristic.
People’s resistance to improving equal opportunities was greatest towards those groups that they considered to be less ‘friendly’ and more ‘capable’ (such as Muslims and immigrants) and least in relation to those they considered less ‘capable’ but more ‘friendly’ (such as disabled people).
Prejudices are likely to be quite specific, and there are differences in the ways that people express their prejudices towards people with different protected characteristics. Although similarly low numbers of people expressed negative feelings towards disabled people with a physical impairment and those with a mental health condition, fewer people were comfortable with the idea of having a person with a mental health condition as their boss or neighbour compared to a disabled person with a physical impairment.
The form and prevalence of prejudice may differ across regions of Britain. For example, the percentage of respondents who expressed negative feelings towards Muslims, immigrants and Gypsies, Roma and Travellers was lower in Scotland than in England.[3]
In 2022, The Equality & Human Rights Commission’s sub-contracted the Learning and Work Institute to produce a report which would evaluate trends in employment specifically for groups who identify as falling within the ‘protected characteristics’ of the Equality Act 2010. The Report, entitled, ‘The Future of Work: protected characteristics in a changing workplace,’ was published in 2023 and made some chilling, if not entirely expected discoveries. These included a wholesale increase in flexible working, zero hours contracts and self employment amongst ‘protected groups’ relative to their non-protected workers.
“Between 2009 and 2021, women’s self-employment rose by 23%, while male self-employment fell by 2%. However, men in Britain are still more likely to be self-employed than women.”[4]
Older workers have equally experienced a radical shift in their employment landscape,
“Those aged 50–69 in Britain have had the sharpest rises in self-employment and uptake of flexible working arrangements since 2009 compared to other age groups.”[5]
Also, older workers were identified as the group with the lowest training opportunities, a detriment which worsens this groups long term prospects of obtaining meaningful and fulfilling employment amongst the grouping with lower employment stability in the face of further increases in the State Pension age. Unemployment amongst workers over 50 was also proportionately higher than among any other protected group who, in addition had a higher incidence of being considered to have a ‘disability’ for employment purposes
Since 2020, younger workers have seen a rapid increase in the use of zero hours contracts, even greater than older workers in the previous decade.[6] Perhaps the most disturbing findings of this report related to disabled workers stating,
“As of 2019, the number of disabled workers on zero-hours contracts in Britain was 154% higher than it was in 2013 (rising from approximately 60,000 to 160,000), while the number of non-disabled workers on zero-hours contracts was 42% higher (rising from approximately 400,000 to 570,000).”[7]
Overall,
“Disabled people in work are likely to be paid less than their non-disabled counterparts and this pay gap increased during the pandemic (Atay et al., 2021). At the same time, disabled people face extra living costs. Research in the UK conducted by Scope showed that on average, disabled people faced a ‘disability price tag’ of up to £583 per month in 2019 (John et al., 2019).”[8]
The Report highlighted a steady increase in flexible working, zero hours contracts, the gig economy (which is difficult to accurately measure by its nature) and self employment. It further estimated the number of jobs deemed ‘at risk’ in the face of increased automation and advances in artificial intelligence (AI). In the case of the latter the Report stated,
“the overall number of workers in high-risk jobs in Britain rose by 8% from 2009 to 2019 (from 6,232,000 to 6,718,000).”[9]
For this workers who identify as protected by s.9 Equality Act 2010, that is;
9. Race
(1) Race includes—
(a) colour;
(b) nationality;
(c) ethnic or national origins.
The Report highlighted,
“that the number of workers from ethnic minorities on flexible contracts rose by 79% from 2009 to 2019, compared to 7% for White British workers.”[10]
This group was unsurprisingly disproportionately affected by self employed working,
“The number of self-employed workers from ethnic minorities rose by 88% between 2009 and 2019, while the number of self-employed White British workers rose by 19% during the same period.”[11]
The trend was also clearly evident when considering zero hours contracts,
“Between 2013 and 2019, the number of ethnic minority workers on zero-hours contracts increased by 96%, while the number of White British workers on zero-hours contracts increased by 29%”[12]
Despite the protections afforded to ethnic minorities they experience a grossly disproportionate degree of unstable, irregular work with less employment rights than their white male counterparts by comparison.
Women in the report experienced less flexible working during the period analysed but the numbers engaged in self employment and zero hours contracts increased markedly compared with their male counterparts (48% compared to 19% increase in the former and 67% compared to 44% in the latter). Again, the trend for women in the workplace is more precarious with an increasingly marked absence of statutory employment rights.
So from this we can safely conclude that despite the protections afforded by the Equality Act 2010, people who identify as having a ‘protected characteristic’ are actually experiencing a greater degree of detriment in their employment than ever before. Our needs are greater now than when the Act came into being. Employees United Union aims to try to address the needs of these groups as our primary focus.
As a final note, we know from current academic research that discriminatory behaviour has a very damaging long term effect on the health of those who are the subject of discrimination. Research published earlier this year in the Journal of Affective Disorders 369 (2025) 913–921, has demonstrated a causal link between discrimination and poor mental health. The report states that,
“discrimination can be considered a social stressor, and that repeated exposure to this stressor over time will produce a more profound psychological effect than a single exposure.”[13]
For example, a study conducted by Aylon & Gunn (2006) in the United States found,
“Greater perceived lifetime discrimination was associated with increased depressive symptoms, which suggests that more exposure to discrimination over the lifetime may be associated with worse mental health.”[14]
The article also highlights the distinct lack of research into employees of all ‘protected characteristics,’ with research currently focussed on race discrimination. The general trends are that employees from poorer economic backgrounds generally experience more frequent and protracted instances of discrimination in the United States, but less so in the UK.[15] The subsequent research conducted by in the article concluded that,
“Amongst a sample of UK adults, perceiving discrimination experiences at multiple timepoints increased the likelihood of experiencing probable mental health problems, compared to perceiving discrimination at only one timepoint.” [16]
These findings clearly demonstrate that discrimination experienced by groups who identify as ‘protected’ under s.5-12 & 18 of the Equality Act 2010 are likely to experience worsening mental health problems as a consequence of discrimination and that these concerns are cumulative. So as a trade union tackling discrimination effectively amounts to addressing a public health issue and Employees United Union is committed to meeting this issue head on in the interests of all of our members and for the general benefit of society as a whole. This is an issue which continues to be increasingly problematic and we would urge the government to implement further legislation to address this.
Employees United Union maintains close links to both the Race Equality Council in Leicester and the African Caribbean Community Association (ACCA) based in Chesterfield. As a trade union based in the East Midlands these organisations provide invaluable support to racially diverse communities in the region.
Resources
Dominic Abrams, Hannah Swift and Diane Houston, ‘Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain’ (2018)
Sam Avanzo Windett, Paul Bivand, Asli Atay, Ekaterina Aleynikova and Jubair Ahmed, ‘The Future of Work: protected characteristics in a changing workplace’ Equality & Human Rights Commission (2022)
Rosanna Maya Maletta a, Michael Daly b, Rob Noonan c, I Gusti Ngurah Edi Putra a, Victoria Vass, Eric Robinson - Accumulation of perceived discrimination over time and likelihood of probable mental health problems in UK adults: A longitudinal cohort study, Journal of Affective Disorders 369 [2025]
[1]Dominic Abrams, Hannah Swift and Diane Houston, ‘Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain’ (2018), pp.10. [2]ibid. [3]ibid, 11. [4]Sam Avanzo Windett, Paul Bivand, Asli Atay, Ekaterina Aleynikova and Jubair Ahmed, ‘The Future of Work: protected characteristics in a changing workplace’ Equality & Human Rights Commission (2022) 7. [5]ibid, 6. [6]ibid, 7. [7]ibid [8]ibid, 47. [9]ibid, 27. [10]ibid, 34. [11]ibid. [12]ibid, 35. [13]Rosanna Maya Maletta a, Michael Daly b, Rob Noonan c, I Gusti Ngurah Edi Putra a, Victoria Vass, Eric Robinson - Accumulation of perceived discrimination over time and likelihood of probable mental health problems in UK adults: A longitudinal cohort study, Journal of Affective Disorders 369 [2025] 913. [14]Rosanna Maya Maletta a, Michael Daly b, Rob Noonan c, I Gusti Ngurah Edi Putra a, Victoria Vass, Eric Robinson - Accumulation of perceived discrimination over time and likelihood of probable mental health problems in UK adults: A longitudinal cohort study, Journal of Affective Disorders 369 [2025] 914. [15]ibid. [16]ibid ,920