PONTIN’S has been served with an unlawful act notice by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) after an investigation found the holiday company discriminated against Irish Travellers.
The EHRC investigation began in 2020 after Pontin's, which is owned by Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited, was found to be using a ‘blacklist’ which featured Irish surnames.
They referred to it as an ‘undesirable guests’ list and told staff not to book holidays for anyone with those names.
Following the investigations, the EHRC found Pontin’s had committed “several clear breaches of the Equality Act”.
These included “creating a list of common Irish surnames labelled as ‘undesirable guests’, instructing staff to decline or cancel bookings made under those names and instructing call centre staff to listen for Irish accents to identify Irish travellers and decline or cancel their bookings”.
They were also found to been in breach of the act by “labelling Irish Travellers and their associates as ‘undesirables’” and “maintaining a ‘banned guest’ list, containing people Pontin's suspected of being Irish Travellers and their associates like family or friends”.
They were further found to have introduced rules within their business requiring guests to appear on the electoral register, which the EHRC confirmed was “a practice found to be discriminatory against Gypsies and Travellers, who are less likely to be on the register”.
The EHRC has concluded its investigation into Pontins (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)The practices in place at Pontin’s were originally revealed by a whistleblower, who shared the list of ‘undesirable guests’ with the EHRC in 2020.
This led to the equality watchdog entering into a legally binding agreement with Pontin's in 2021, to end the practices and prevent further discrimination.
However, the EHRC terminated the agreement in 2022 and launched a formal investigation, after Pontin's failed to comply with the agreement’s terms.
Commenting on the investigation, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Our investigation into Pontin's uncovered flagrant breaches of the Equality Act 2010.
“Their business practices demonstrated shocking overt race discrimination towards Irish Travellers and there was a culture of denial.”
She added: “We remain deeply concerned about these discriminatory practices.
“They were instigated and supported by senior managers and their leadership failed to take any action or accept corporate responsibility.
“Such unlawful and discriminatory behaviour is completely unacceptable, and it must never be tolerated.”
Chris McDonagh, Campaigns Officer at Friends, Families and Travellers, responded to the findings today.
“It is deeply saddening that Irish Traveller people have become so used to hate and prejudice that the Pontin's ‘blacklist’ did not come as a surprise,” he said.
“Whilst we are certain that Pontin's are not the only ones operating such discriminatory policies, we welcome the EHRC’s investigation and commend the whistleblower’s principled stance.
“Everyone deserves to live free from hate and prejudice.”
In its report recommendations, the EHRC has called on Pontin's to apologise to the Gypsy and Traveller community while “acknowledging their corporate responsibility and committing to a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination”.
They must also monitor booking cancellations and failures in order to identify future or remaining issues and review and update their policies and procedures to ensure they are not discriminatory.
Pontin's has further been told to “develop and deliver training, including equality training around their legal duty to not discriminate” and “remove terms that stipulate electoral roll checks”.
By law, Pontin's must produce an action plan to set out how they intend to meet these recommendations.
This plan must be in place by April 9, 2024, or the firm will face criminal sanctions.
“As regulator of the Equality Act, we will be monitoring Pontin's closely to ensure they take accountability and make meaningful change happen by implementing our recommendations,” Baroness Falkner added.
“We also urge the wider hospitality sector to take heed of these findings and ensure they are not using discriminatory policies and terms that prevent people from accessing services because of their race.”
Responding to the report, the Traveller Movement said today: “We are proud to have brought this case to light after supporting the families that were affected.
"We welcome the EHRC's judgement but we need to see a wider commitment to kicking out racism across the hospitality sector."
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