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Avoiding discrimination

This page explains how employers should avoid unlawful discrimination in their recruitment and employment practices while seeking to prevent illegal working by carrying out the appropriate document checks on all of their employees.

Avoiding racial discrimination

It is important to remember that the population of the United Kingdom is ethnically diverse. Many people from ethnic minorities in this country are British citizens and many non-British citizens from black and minority ethnic communities are entitled to work here. Therefore, it must not be assumed that someone from an ethnic minority is an immigrant, or that someone born abroad is not entitled to work in the United Kingdom.

Employers who refuse to consider anyone who looks or sounds foreign are likely to be unlawfully discriminating on racial grounds. If document checks are carried out only for prospective employees who by their appearance or accent seem not to be British, this too may constitute unlawful racial discrimination. Where complaints of racial discrimination are upheld by a Tribunal, employers can be ordered to pay compensation for which there is no upper limit.

Employers have a legal duty under current race relations legislation to avoid unlawfully discriminating on racial grounds and are therefore advised to undertake document checks on every prospective employee. The best way for employers to make sure that they do not discriminate is to treat all job applicants in the same way at each stage of their recruitment process.

Codes of practice for employers

The Government has published a code of practice for employers on how to avoid unlawful discrimination in their recruitment and employment practices while seeking to prevent illegal working. The code of practice is available to download from this website.

Further advice

The code of practice for employers contains details of where employers can get further advice on preventing discrimination, including contact details for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.