Dying on the job - Racism and risk at work

In May 2020, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published an analysis of the number of Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers that had died because of Covid-19, revealing the full disproportionate impact of the pandemic on BME groups. Tragically, before official statistics were released, it was only through pictures of those who had died being shared that this truth was brought into the spotlight. 

The analysis shows that when taking into account age, Black men and Black women are 4.2 and 4.3 times respective more likely than white men and women to die from coronavirus. Similarly, men in the Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic group were 1.8 times more likely to have a coronavirus-related death than white men when age and other socio-demographic characteristics and measures of self-reported health and disability were taken into account; for women, the figure is 1.6 times more likely. 

The ONS analysis found that while geographic and socio-economic factors accounted for over half of the difference in risk, these factors do not explain all the difference, suggesting that other causes are still to be identified.   The TUC believes that these other causes include the effects of institutional racism and structural inequality that exist in the world of work. 

Unfortunately, the government response to date has failed to fully accept the extent to which structural drivers influence disproportionate death rates, instead suggesting that cultural or genetic factors are playing a larger role. Its coronavirus policy response has failed both to take account of the institutional and structural inequality BME people face and to mitigate its impacts. Strategies for dealing with the pandemic have not taken account of the economic position of people in BME communities, the racism that shapes the lived experience of people from BME backgrounds and the role that race inequality plays in the world of work. Racism remains a matter of life and death.

It is these risk factors, not the ethnic origins of BME workers, that have led them to experience disproportionate numbers of coronavirus deaths.

However, despite growing public discussion about the impact of coronavirus on BME workers, the reality of their lived experiences has largely been excluded from the debate. 

From the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, unions have told us that BME people (including migrant workers) have been discriminated against in a number of ways - being singled out for more dangerous or difficult work, not getting access to adequate PPE, not being protected despite having underlying health conditions, being targeted when hours or jobs are being cut and being racially abused by colleagues or customers. We wanted to understand more about this and to put the voices and experiences of BME workers at the heart of the debate about the disproportionate impact of Covid-19. It is only through listening to BME workers and acting on their experiences and preferred solutions that we will effectively identify the issues that we need to address and find the best ways forward. That is why in June 2020 the TUC put out a call for evidence. We wanted to give BME workers an opportunity to place their experiences on record. Over 1,200 workers responded and told us their stories. The findings show how discrimination has compounded the impact of the pandemic on BME workers.

Before the pandemic, we had also commissioned ICM to undertake a survey of over 1,200 black and minority ethnic (BME) workers. This report also sets out the results of this survey, which provides further evidence on BME workers’ experience of discrimination at work.