How To Deal With Racial Discrimination In The Workplace

Racial discrimination at work is often described by the people experiencing it as hard to pin down. The comment framed as banter. The accent raised in a performance review. The shifts that go elsewhere. The promotion that goes to someone with a shorter record and an easier name to pronounce.

The law is more specific than the experience. This guide sets out what is actually covered, where the responsibility sits, and what to do about it as the person affected.

What Counts as Racial Discrimination in the Workplace

Racial discrimination in the workplace means being treated unfavourably because of your race or a related characteristic, rather than because of your conduct or your ability to do the job.

It applies across the whole employment relationship, not just hiring. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 covers all types of employers, employment relationships and recruitment, including how jobs are advertised, how candidates are selected, who gets training, who gets promoted, and how employment is terminated.

It also protects you by association. If you are treated unfavourably because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of someone you are connected to, rather than your own, that is covered too.

The Grounds the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 Covers

The Act is broader than the word “race” suggests. It covers:

• Race
• Colour
• Descent
• National origin
• Ethnic origin
• Immigrant status

That list matters because a lot of workplace treatment that people hesitate to call racial sits squarely inside it. Comments about an accent relate to national origin. Assumptions based on a surname relate to descent or ethnic origin. Being treated differently after arriving in Australia relates to immigrant status.

If you have been unsure whether your situation “counts”, the question is not whether it fits a narrow idea of race. It is whether the treatment traces back to any one of those six grounds.

Direct and Indirect Racial Discrimination at Work

As with every protected attribute, the law recognises two forms, and the second causes most of the confusion.

Direct discrimination is being treated less favourably than someone else in similar circumstances because of race or a related ground. A candidate passed over despite stronger experience, after a comment about cultural fit, is the familiar shape.

Indirect discrimination is a rule or practice that applies to everyone but disadvantages people of a particular race without good reason. A requirement that has nothing to do with the actual job, such as an unnecessarily high standard of written English for a role that is almost entirely practical, can be indirect racial discrimination even though it is applied to every applicant equally.

Indirect discrimination rarely looks deliberate from the inside, which is exactly why it survives in policies for years.

Racial Discrimination and Racial Harassment Are Not the Same Thing

These two get used interchangeably and they are not the same, which matters because they lead to different arguments.

Discrimination is about unfavourable treatment: a decision, a rule, an opportunity withheld. Harassment is about conduct: behaviour directed at you because of your race that creates a hostile environment. One is usually about what happened to your employment, the other about what it is like to be at work.

Plenty of situations are both at once, and you do not have to choose a label correctly before you complain. But naming the treatment accurately helps. If your complaint is about decisions, lead with the decisions. If it is about conduct, lead with the conduct and its pattern. Sentrient’s guide on identifying, preventing and responding to racial harassment covers the conduct side in depth, and the breakdown of examples of racial discrimination at work is useful if you are still working out which category you are in.

Racial Hatred and Vilification: A Separate Protection

Beyond discrimination, the Act contains a separate protection against racial hatred, and it is worth knowing because it catches conduct that a discrimination claim might not.

It covers acts done in public that are reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person or group because of race, colour, or national or ethnic origin. Courts have set the bar meaningfully high: the effects must be profound and serious, not mere slights.

There are good-faith exemptions. Conduct is not unlawful if it is done reasonably and in good faith as part of an artistic work or performance, a genuine academic or scientific statement, a fair and accurate report on a matter of public interest, or fair comment expressing a genuine belief.

For most workplace situations the discrimination pathway is the more direct route. Racial hatred is worth knowing about when the problem is sustained public conduct rather than an employment decision.

Your Employer Is Liable for What Colleagues Do

This is the part most employees do not know, and it changes who you are actually dealing with.

Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent racial discrimination, and they can be held responsible for the conduct of their employees through vicarious liability. The practical effect is that a complaint about a colleague is not only about that colleague. It is also about whether the organisation had a policy, provided training, and acted when it was told.

So when you raise something, direct it at the organisation rather than framing it as a dispute between two people. And record what the employer did after it knew, because that response is frequently the decisive evidence. An organisation that received a complaint and did nothing is in a far weaker position than one that investigated.

Where Citizenship and Visa Requirements Sit

One genuine grey area is worth clearing up, because it comes up constantly in recruitment.

Limiting recruitment to Australian citizens or permanent residents is not against the law. Employers are entitled to require a right to work.

Refusing someone work because of their immigrant status, however, can be unlawful. The distinction is between a requirement about legal entitlement to work, which is permitted, and treating someone unfavourably because they are an immigrant, which is not. If the stated reason shifted over time, or the requirement appeared only after your background became known, that sequence is worth documenting.

How to Build a Record of Racial Discrimination at Work

Racial discrimination complaints are won on pattern and on the employer’s response, so build the record around both.

Keep a dated log somewhere your employer cannot access. For each incident note the date, who was present, what was said in as close to the actual words as you can manage, and what followed. Record the comparison too: who else was in the same position, and how they were treated. Comparative detail does more work here than almost anywhere else, because the central question is whether you were treated less favourably than someone in similar circumstances.

Then keep the employer’s side of the thread. When you reported it, to whom, what they said, how long it took, and what actually changed. Given vicarious liability, that record is not secondary. It is often the main event.

Two cautions. Do not take documents you are not entitled to have. And check your state or territory law before recording a conversation, since the rules on recording without consent differ across Australia.

How to Raise Racial Discrimination With Your Employer

Internal resolution is faster than any external process, and external bodies will ask what you did first. Race is also a protected attribute under the Fair Work Act, so a dismissal or demotion connected to it opens a second route.

Put it in writing. Describe the conduct or decision, name the ground you believe it relates to, and say what outcome you want. Naming the ground matters more than people expect, because “I was treated unfairly” invites a general grievance process while “I believe this related to my national origin” puts the organisation on notice of a discrimination complaint and triggers its obligations.

If your direct manager is involved, most policies name an alternative, usually HR, a more senior manager or a contact officer. Ask for a response by a specific date. Where there is a union, an employee representative or an employee assistance program, use them.

Where to Complain About Racial Discrimination

You generally cannot run the same complaint in two forums at once, and lodging in one can close another off. If a dismissal is involved, check the 21-day deadline before anything else.

Racial Discrimination in Australia: What the Complaint Data Shows

Two numbers are worth having in mind.

In 2022-23 the Australian Human Rights Commission received 473 complaints under the Racial Discrimination Act, 19% of all complaints it received that year, behind disability at 46% and sex at 22%. Of those race complaints, 36% arose in employment.

The second figure is about how complaints end rather than how they start. The Australian National Audit Office found conciliation resolved 46% of Commission complaints in 2017-18 but only 33% by 2023-24, while complaints terminated, declined or discontinued rose from 40% to 58%.

The practical reading is that race complaints from workplaces are common, and that the external system is slower and less likely to conciliate than it was. That is an argument for building the record early and giving the internal process a real run, not for staying quiet.

How to Deal With Racial Discrimination in the Workplace: Where to Start

Four steps, in this order.

1. Write down what happened, with dates and comparisons, and store it outside your work accounts.
2. Identify which of the six grounds it relates to: race, colour, descent, national origin, ethnic origin or immigrant status.
3. Raise it in writing and name the ground, so the organisation is on notice and its obligation to take all reasonable steps is engaged. Keep a record of what it does next.
4. If a dismissal or demotion is involved, check the date immediately, because the 21-day Fair Work clock is running. Get advice from your union, a community legal centre or an employment lawyer before lodging anything external.

For the complaint pathways, evidence and deadlines that apply to every kind of workplace discrimination, the companion guide on how to deal with discrimination in the workplace as an employee goes wider. If you are not sure the treatment relates to race at all, start with unfair treatment at work.

From the organisation’s side, vicarious liability makes this a systems question rather than a personnel one. Sentrient’s workplace compliance system and online compliance courses cover the policy, training and reporting records that “all reasonable steps” is measured against, and the manager guide covers responding to a complaint.

Frequently Asked Questions

What grounds does the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 cover?
Race, colour, descent, national origin, ethnic origin and immigrant status. It also protects you if you are treated unfavourably because of the race or origin of someone you associate with.

Is my employer responsible for what a colleague says to me?
It can be. Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent racial discrimination and can be held liable for employees’ conduct through vicarious liability. What the organisation did once it knew is usually central to the case.

Are comments about my accent racial discrimination?
They can be, because national origin is a protected ground. Whether it amounts to unlawful discrimination depends on whether it affected your treatment at work or formed part of a pattern of conduct directed at you.

What is the difference between racial discrimination and racial hatred?
Discrimination is unfavourable treatment because of race. Racial hatred covers public acts reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin, and courts require the effects to be profound and serious rather than mere slights.

Can an employer require Australian citizenship or permanent residency?
Limiting recruitment to citizens or permanent residents is not against the law. Refusing someone work because of their immigrant status can be unlawful. The difference is between a right-to-work requirement and unfavourable treatment because someone is an immigrant.

Does it count if nobody intended to discriminate?
Yes. Indirect discrimination arises from rules and practices that apply to everyone but disadvantage people of a particular race without good reason, and those are rarely designed deliberately.

How long do I have to complain?
For a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the President may terminate a complaint lodged more than 24 months after the conduct. If you were dismissed, a Fair Work application must generally be lodged within 21 days. State and territory limits are set separately and are often shorter.

What if the comments were meant as a joke?
Intention is not the test for discrimination, and “banter” is not an exemption. What matters is the effect and whether the treatment related to a protected ground. Record the incidents and the pattern rather than arguing about intent.

Sources

Australian Human Rights Commission, Racial Discrimination Act 1975

Australian Human Rights Commission, Offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate

Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Act

Australian Human Rights Commission, 473 complaints

Last reviewed: October 2026

Read More About Racial Discrimination And Harassment:

• What Are Examples Of Racial Discrimination In The Workplace?
• How To Identify, Prevent, And Respond To Racial Harassment In The Workplace
• How To Deal With Discrimination In The Workplace As An Employee
• How To Deal With Unfair Treatment In The Workplace
• 12 Common Types Of Discrimination In The Workplace