More than just sticks and stones – accent discrimination in the workplace

2026 is set to be a big year for international events particularly in the sporting world, with the Winter Olympics and Paralympics taking place in Italy, the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico and the Commonwealth Games set to take place in Scotland. These events will not only celebrate the excellence of athletes in their chosen disciplines but they provide an opportunity to bring together supporters and athletics from all over the world and celebrate national pride. With the Employment Tribunal (ET) recently confirming that an accent is intrinsically linked to a person’s ethnicity or nationality, now is a good time for employers to ensure that they don’t drop the ball or fall foul to accent discrimination.

What is harassment?

The Equality Act 2010 states that if a person harasses another if they engage in unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic where that conduct has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

The nine protected characteristics are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage/civil partnership
• pregnancy/maternity
• race
• religion/belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

Although accents aren’t protected as a standalone characteristic, where an individual’s accent is linked to their nationality or race, comments about it could amount to harassment related to that protected characteristic. It’s important to note that while regional accents are not explicitly covered by the Equality Act, it is arguable that comments regarding them could lead to discrimination claims.

It’s not all ‘fun and games’

Two recent examples both involved Brazilian nationals who made harassment complaints after comments were made to them regarding difficulty in understanding them. Specifically, during probation review meetings comments were made regarding an employee’s ‘very strong’ accent which could be difficult to understand as well as ‘jokes’ about how the individual shouldn’t make announcements over a microphone as she could not be understood.

One of these harassment claims was originally dismissed, finding that the comments made regarding the employee’s accent were motivated by intelligibility not racial hatred, therefore not related to her protected characteristic.

Ultimately though, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) determined that the ET had misinterpreted the law by focusing on the motivation and intentions of the alleged harasser rather than the purpose or effect the conduct had on the claimant. This serves as an important reminder that test for harassment focuses on the purpose or effect of the conduct and that comments regarding an individual’s accent could be unlawful harassment whether intended or not.

In contrast, a Scottish postman’s race discrimination claim failed after comments were made about his managers’ difficulty understanding him. This was unsuccessful as the ability to understand him was due to the speed at which he spoke, not his accent. Scots have often been known to be fast talkers but anyone struggling to understand Mel Gibson in Braveheart is likely to find that is based on his bad imitation of the Scots accent rather than the speed he was talking.

What does this mean in practice?

Much like the upcoming international sporting events, workplaces should also be celebrating their diversity, culture and employees’ pride. Where accents are intrinsically linked to an individual’s race of nationality, employers and colleagues must take care when commenting on them, even inadvertently.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss how this issue might impact you or your business, please contact our Employment Law Solicitor, Katie Proctor.