Two-thirds of workers have experienced or witnessed racism at work, but nearly half say it is rarely recognised as a workplace safety issue, according to research by the Australian Institute of Health and Safety.
In a survey of the peak body's members, more than 30 per cent said they had low confidence health and safety professionals could identify racism as a psychosocial risk.
The findings prompted the institute to issue a position statement on racism, recognising it as a preventable work-related harm that must be managed by leaders.
Clear policies on racism should be reinforced at every level of an organisation and incidents should be addressed quickly, the statement said.
The institute's chair Celia Antonovsky said the effects of workplace racism were wide-ranging.
"At its most basic, if someone was experiencing racism at work, they would dread going to work, they would dread interacting with certain colleagues," Ms Antonovsky told AAP.
"Then people are taking that negativity home with them, so it would be affecting their family life, their interactions with their friends.
"One or a few interactions may have a ripple effect through someone's whole life."
Racism could also deter an employee from speaking up about other issues, including risks to physical safety, she said.
Workplace racism may be overt, such as slurs, or less visible actions like microaggressions, unconscious bias and casual racism.
Australia's multicultural society was also reflected in its workplaces, Ms Antonovsky said.
"We benefit from everyone's participation in the workplace," she said.
"We rely on a migrant workforce; we can't fill all the jobs with the existing population.
"It's really unfair to benefit, but then offer a workplace that isn't free from racism."
A separate 2026 study of First Nations workers found 53 per cent had experienced racist comments about they way they look, or "should" look as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.
Nearly two-thirds of Indigenous employees said their workplace had no training to address racism against First Nations people, according to the Gari Yala report.Â
Almost 70 per cent also reported having no formal complaint process for racist incidents, the survey of 1158 people found.
Ms Antonovsky said NAIDOC Week was a particularly important time to raise awareness of workplace racism.
"Every week is a good time, but this is a particularly good time to have a call to protect workers from racism," she said.
"We know First Nations people are disproportionately affected, which is unacceptable."
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