Refused access to pubs or restaurants on grounds of ethnic origin

Alert DateJanuary 6, 2007 Country: Austria Address: Vienna Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Afrophobia
General Type: Racist discourse, Discrimination Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Ethnic minorities Strands: Racism, Discrimination Key Areas: Discrimination Statistics

Timeline

  • Refused admission to pubs

    In January 2007, Ms P. wants to go to the birthday party of an acquaintance in a pub in Vienna together with her African-born friend. When her friend is refused entry, the manager tells her to notify him in advance the next time she wanted to take a black along. Upon this the company proceeds to a nearby restaurant, but there the manager also says that he does not want blacks. The anti-racism NGO ZARA files a report against the proprietors of both businesses under the Introductory Act to the Administrati...

  • Recommendations for a non-discriminating policy on the admission to pubs and restaurants

    In recent years several incidents of denied admission to bars and restaurants were reported to NGOs or brought before the Equal Treamtent Commission. Persons are baned from or refused access to bars and/or restaurants on grounds of ethnic origin, colour of skin and/or gender. Therefore ZARA, the Ombud for Equal Treatment and the Litigation Association launched an initiative to draft recommendations for a non-discriminating policy on the admission to pubs and restaurants. Owners of pubs and restaurants, u...

Several incidents of refused access to pubs or restaurants on grounds of ethnic origin were reported and brought to the Equal Treatment Commission and/or to court during the last years.

The case study shall be exemplified by the following incident: In January 2007, Ms P. wants to go to the birthday party of an acquaintance in a pub in Vienna together with her African-born friend. When her friend is refused entry, the manager tells her to notify him in advance the next time she wanted to take a black along. Upon this the company proceeds to a nearby restaurant, but there the manager also says that he does not want blacks. The anti-racism NGO ZARA files a report against the proprietors of both businesses under the Introductory Act to the Administrative Procedure Acts and the cases are brought before the Equal Treatment Commission.

In November 2008, more that 21 months after the application was filed, decisions are reached in both cases of refused admission. In reference to both the Irish Pub, as well as the restaurants it is decreed that the denial of entry and respectively, the refusal of service constitutes immediate discrimination against Mr L. on the basis of ethnicity in the sense of the Equal Treatment Act.

However, this is only one of several similar incidents that took place over the last years. The Equal Treatment Commission published a number of cases brought before the Commission and also the Litigation Association documented some cases. The Litigation Association took some of the cases to court in order to demand compensation, which was granted by court in an increasing number of cases.

For example, the above mentioned case of a man refused to enter a pub in Vienna was brought to court by the Litigation Association in order to claim the sum of Euro 1,000.00 as damages for the discrimination in accordance with article 35 paragraph 1 of the Equal Treatment Act. The court accepted the claim of the plaintiff and ordered the defendant to pay the demanded sum. The decision was confirmed in an appeals procedure.

However, although there were several successful court cases declaring those cases as being discriminatory and ordering offenders to pay damages the refusal of admission to pubs or restaurants on grounds of skin colour is still a common practice. The NGOs ZARA and SOS Mitmensch carried out some restaurant tests in order to find out if persons are facing discriminating practices concerning access to pubs and restaurants on grounds of their colour of skin. The tests confirmed that persons are being refused access to pubs by doormen because of the colour of their skin. Therefore ZARA, the Ombud for Equal Treatment and the Litigation Association launched an initiative to draft recommendations for a non-discriminating policy on the admission to pubs and restaurants. Owners of pubs and restaurants, unions and organisations dealing with the restaurant industry are called on to actively implement the Equal Treatment Act and to ensure with the help of the recommendations that persons are granted equal access to pubs and restaurants.

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