Summary of prevalence of workplace racial
harassment among Māori workers
In the last five years over half (52%) of Māori workers have experienced at least one of the racial
harassment behaviours we measured. Similar to sexual harassment, difference in lifetime vs.
behavioural prevalence figures suggests a gap in understanding in what could be considered racial
harassment in the workplace.
PREVALENCE RATES
RACIAL HARASSMENT
25%
52%
…of Māori workers report
being ‘racially harassed’ in their
working life.
…of Māori workers in the last 5
years experienced one or more of
the racial harassment behaviours
measured in the survey.
34%
…of Māori workers are aware
of racial harassment affecting
others in their workplace in the
last 5 years.
“Little off-hand jokes about being Māori, poor and having lots of kids. Also a couple
of times rumours about myself harassing someone and it getting taken out of
proportion, but when talking to that person everything seems fine.”
- Māori male who was working in the retail trade sector
“[In my current job] I deal with racism from other departments. I work for [a
government organisation] and we will get excluded from events, but they will call on
us to do pōwhiri etc. when they need a token Māori. Staff will often ignore us when
walking into the office, they have the kind of looking down on you attitude... just a
whole lot of being treated differently.”
- Māori female who was working in the public administration and safety sector
“Being Māori is often looked down on and people just make jokes about Māori
people being thieves and criminals without a second thought.”
- Māori female who was working in the retail trade sector
KANTAR PUBLIC 2022
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