Frontline experience of the pay gap

Ken Martindale: Pay problem needs to be tackled

A new report has highlighted how black and Asian workers earn far less than their white counterparts.

BBC News Online's Chris Hamilton talks to some workers who feel they have been caught up in the pay trap.

Many of the people who spoke to BBC News Online said either they or people they knew had been paid less for doing the same job as white colleagues - but doing something about it can be difficult.

A call for legal reform by the TUC, which produced the report, was backed by council youth worker David Allen, 44.

David Allen: Managers use '"lame" excuses

"I know people who've been doing the same job as someone else, find out they're getting paid less but then the managements usually just come up with lame excuses, like the other person has been there longer, or they're on different contracts," he says.

"From what I can see large firms tend to work harder to make sure that all the staff are paid equally but it's the smaller firms where they think they can get away with it.

"Sometimes you do need new laws and I think this is a good case."

'Uphill struggle'

One proposed change is to extend race relations laws from the public to the private sector.

But job-hunting Abdul Wahab, 57, who says different pay is only one part of the workplace discrimination problem, believes the public sector can make improvements too.

The government can make new laws but it's people who carry them out

Abdul Wahab

As a former civil servant, he says people are put off complaining because it is risky, time consuming, they are ill-briefed on how to do it and they feel managers will find it impossible to put themselves in their employee's position.

Yet Mr Wahab is not convinced changing the law or encouraging firms to monitor their pay is the way forward.

He says discriminatory attitudes are "entrenched".

"The government can make new laws but it's people who carry them out," he warns.

Leon Dennis, 31, agrees that pay is part of a wider problem.

Leon Dennis: Has been "messed around" over pay

Getting a job as a black person when competing against an equally qualified white person can be the first uphill struggle, he says.

He goes on: "I know people who have been paid less than people they're working with, but when they found out they didn't do anything about it.

"Instead of complaining people are scared, but I don't know why. If they're in this position they should use their voice to complain, that's what it's there for and that's how things get changed."

Job loss fear

IT worker Saeed Elmi, 25, from Somalia, thinks the pay gap is definitely a problem, and one he has come across from being both black and an asylum seeker.

"They see who you are and think just because you are from a poorer background you are more likely to accept less money.

"I had a job as an administration assistant for a catering company. I was getting paid less then my colleagues, but I only found out after I'd been there for months when a friend told me.

Saeed Elmi: Trained in IT at university

"But I'd already signed the contract, so I had one choice: either accept the pay or leave the job."

Outreach worker Ken Martindale, who has worked in his community for more than 30 years, says many people are afraid to protest about unfair conditions, and know it can be difficult to find another job.

He believes discrimination is not always to blame, with managers under pressure to stick within tight budgets another possible culprit.

But often, he says, the same managers will "fob off" complainants and attempt to make them believe that they have no choice but to accept it - which is when people are driven to take legal action, or get their union involved.

Mr Martindale, who runs a cultural and community assistance organisation called the Black British Heritage Group, adds: "When I compare my experiences of discrimination in employment to my children's experiences I think there has been an enormous leap forward - but there is still a long way to go."