Comments about your accent at work can count as harassment related to your race
“EATStands for Employment Appeal Tribunal. It hears appeals from employment tribunal decisions on points of law, not on the facts. It is not a way of simply asking for a second opinion on the outcome. allowed the appeal and remitted the harassmentUnwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, such as your sex, race, disability, age or religion, that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment... claim for reconsideration”
You do not need to prove your manager meant to discriminate against you for repeated comments about your accent to count as harassment.
- Keep a record of any repeated comments about your accent, name, or background, including when and where they happened.
- Remember that a manager's good intentions do not automatically make comments about your accent or background lawful.
- If this is happening to you, especially during probation or a performance review, get advice on your specific situation before deciding what to do next.
The situation
An employee, a university marketing manager who was a non-British national with a strong accent, was repeatedly criticised by her line manager during probation review meetings. During these meetings, the manager repeatedly raised her accent as a problem, acknowledging her English was good but insisting she needed to work on how she sounded so she would be easier to understand. She resigned before her probation period was completed and brought a harassment claim, arguing the comments were related to her race.
What the tribunal found
The employment tribunal had dismissed her harassment claim, reasoning that the comments were not "related to" race because her manager had not been consciously motivated by it. The Employment Appeal Tribunal overturned this. Harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 asks whether conduct is "related to" a protected characteristicOne of the nine characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010 against which it is unlawful to discriminate. They include age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. If yo..., and the EAT confirmed this is a broad test that does not require the other person to have intended, or even realised, the connection. An accent can be closely tied to a person's national or ethnic identity, so repeated criticism of it was capable of amounting to harassment related to race, even without any discriminatory motive. The case was sent back to a different tribunal to be reconsidered under the correct test.
Miss E Carozzi v University of Hertfordshire and Ms A Lucas [2024] EAT 169, Employment Appeal Tribunal, decided 9 October 2024.