26
March 2026
Campaigning for healthier, fairer work with Race Equality Foundation
Inequality in the workplace
Work should be protect our health. It can give us stability, dignity and the chance to thrive. But for too many people in the UK – especially those from minoritised ethnic groups – that simply isn’t the case.
Over the last twenty years, people from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic backgrounds have driven much of the growth in the UK workforce. Our workplaces look more diverse than ever, yet the structures that shape working life – who gets access to good jobs, who is protected, who is listened to – haven’t kept pace, putting more people at risk of ill‑health or being pushed out of work altogether.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 marked a positive shift. By introducing day‑one access to Statutory Sick Pay, strengthening flexible working rights and promising more predictable working patterns for people in insecure roles, it signalled that policymakers are recognising how outdated many workplace protections have become.
Our member Race Equality Foundation’s report Too Poor to Be Sick shows that these reforms don’t reach the deeper structural issues harming people’s health at work – especially for minoritised ethnic and migrant workers.
Here’s what they found:
Racism and precarious work harms health and keeps people sick
- Minoritised ethnic workers are still concentrated in low‑paid, insecure jobs with unsafe conditions, long hours – a pattern rooted in structural racism. These roles often come with more risks, more stress, and fewer rights – exactly the kind of environment that damages health over time and makes it far harder for people to return to work.
Sick pay still isn’t enough
- Low pay and patchy access to Statutory Sick Pay mean many people still feel they have no choice but to work while unwell.
- Even when protections exist on paper, they’re not always applied fairly – some workers are denied sick pay, disciplined for being ill, or even asked to send photos from hospital beds with that day’s newspaper just to “prove” they’re sick.
I remembered being in hospital because I had a really horrible crisis, and my manager at the time basically requested for me to send a photo to prove that I was in hospital ... I sent the photo over, and then she asked me to get the same day newspaper and hold it up to my face and take a picture, which obviously, at the time, I thought it was normal, so I did that.
Support comes too late
- Too many workers can’t get occupational health support or reasonable adjustments when they need them. And when help does come, it’s often after someone’s health has already worsened.
- Financial pressure and racial bias make it even harder for people to ask for support early, leading to delays in care and worsening conditions.
The whole issue around my return, which is what I think my discrimination was, was basically they tried to frame a demotion and a pay decrease as a return-to-work process.
27%
Statutory sick pay covers just 27% of minimum wage, forcing impossible choices between getting better and paying rent, heating or eating.
66%
of employers provide no occupational health support.
80s
Pakistani women in their 50s have health outcomes comparable to White British women in their 80s – the “weathering” effect of structural racism and poor working conditions.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. That’s why we’re supporting Race Equality Foundation to campaign to make work healthier and fairer.
Here are some of their recommendations:
- Make sure ethnicity is properly included in national data on jobs and health — including things like who gets sick pay, who uses fit notes, and who gets support to return to work. We need clear numbers on racial disparities.
- When changes are made to Statutory Sick Pay or occupational health, check how they affect different ethnic groups and different types of work. Build in ways for minoritised ethnic workers to help shape these policies from the start.
- Back research that looks at how racism and discrimination show up in real life — through workplace practices, benefit rules, and the way people move through the healthcare system. Use both data and personal experience.
- Be clear that racism directly affects people’s health, and reflect that openly in work and welfare policy.
