Discrimination In the Workplace

Hi
I have been with my employer for 8 years and am now having serious problems,The job i got was through a friend and everything was fine until at a lunch break he mentioned "That i Dont do anything outside of the workplace and me and a friend where slagging Country People"

This has gone around the workplace like gossip and now the 2 Fitters who are from the country and any other person from the country seem to be getting Irked that i do nothing?????

They constantly say stuff Like "You Do not do anything outside of here" i also get the impression they where trying to get me to do harder work IN the workplace because of me doing nothing outside???

They also stay stuff like "YOU Probably Broke The Work Equipment" without even finding out who broke It, and now the whole factory are saying it as a joke "It was Probably Me who broke it"
I was out sick for a week with stress so Health And Safety know about this

It seems like i am Victim of some sort of country Prejudice???

What do i do here , and can a workplace get involved in Outside Hours of a personal Individual

What causes me concern is that the friend who got you the job has shafted you.
Perhaps he expects you to take him for drinks as a reward for getting you the job - I don't know.
Be that as it may, a distressing situation has been engineered by him and its making life difficult at work.

Employers are supposed to ensure that the dignity of employees are supported in the workplace.
Normally this is seen in the context of the employer not doing things to undermine that dignity, but this is about fellow employees disrespecting you.
In my opinion employers should ensure that that morale of the workplace is good and employees support each others dignity and mind their own business about out of hours activities.

On the other hand, you are giving an outline of what can sometimes be a very complex situation - relations in a workplace.
With so many people under stress with job-related issues, its easy to single out one person to be the butt of thoughtless remarks.
Sometimes people are trying to lighten the tension, but it makes things very difficult for the object of the humour - you, in this case.

If you firm has a HR representative or a shop floor manager or line manager I would refer the matter to them.
If you escalate this and bring some sort of action through a rights commissioner you may make your situation worse.
However the wit you describe seems to be pretty low-level and sometimes just ignoring people is the best course of action.

I wish I could advise you more.

ONQ.

Sounds to me like they're just joking and trying to get a rise out of you..

Are you sure you are not just being over sensitive?

You may be taking people to seriously and too literal.

e.g. when you ask an Irish person how they are, they usually just say grand..Sometimes if you ask for example an Eastern European how they are, they will go into a long story about "how they are"

Context is also important.