Race discrimination and harassment cost Cleveland policeman Sultan Alam, 45, his career, his first marriage and his freedom.

Alam, a pioneering Asian recruit to the notoriously white macho world of 1980s policing, spent nine months in jail for a theft for which he claimed he had been framed by fellow officers. He fought for a decade to clear his name after release until his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal last year.

You might think that the last place Alam would want to work again would be Cleveland Police, where he was racially harassed – a series of incidents culminating in a Ku Klux Klan poster being left on his desk led to his original racial discrimination claim – and which had dismissed him in disgrace.

Yet earlier this year the father to two teenage girls went back to work for his old employer determined to return to the career he once loved.

“I’m trying to stick to my promise not to be consumed by anger and bitterness,” he said. “But we are all human with human failings and sometimes the memories do come back, though I try to rise above them.

“It was always my intention to go back. It was essential to my own wellbeing to claim back what was mine by right. Also few of the old officers are still in place and at executive level attitudes have changed. I think the organisation has learnt from my experience.”

As has the Police Federation. Last year an employment tribunal ruled the federation had racially discriminated against Alam when it refused to help him clear his name though it supported four officers who were tried – and cleared – of framing him.

The discrimination Alam suffered is rarer these days, but his return to the beat comes amid a flurry of racial-discrimination claims by Asian officers over promotion opportunities.

The most high-profile involve Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaf-fur, who has threatened to sue the force for discrimination, and Met commander Shabir Hussain, who claimed at an employment tribunal this month that Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair groomed a “golden circle” of white officers for promotion ahead of black and Asian officers. Blair “absolutely refuted” the claim. The hearing has now concluded and a decision is awaited.

The National Association of Muslim Officers, which alleges its members are being discriminated against in training and promotion, has complained that 20 police forces have refused to cooperate with its national audit of the number of Muslim and black police officers, their rank and promotion prospects.

It’s not just the Met that is feeling the heat. Earlier this month, a sales assistant who claimed she was fired from Frost French – a bou-tique co-owned by actress Sadie Frost – because of her skin colour was awarded more than £5,000 by a tribunal.

Last year, before it was wound up, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said discrimination at work was the main concern of ethnic minorities. Of the 5,000 complaints the CRE received in the first six months of last year, 43% were linked to employment. It was also reported that race-discrimi-nation cases submitted to employment tribunals were up 24% on the previous year.

With the arrival of the new “single” equality bill, aimed at levelling the playing field for all minorities, rather than tackling race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation and religion and belief separately, the “business case” for equal treatment is being made with greater vigour. And firms are being warned that they must do more to ensure equality in the workplace if they are to safeguard themselves against discrimination claims.

Sam Mercer of Business in the Community, which runs the campaign group Race for Opportunity, warns that while most employers now have good policies on race, those policies are only as good as the people who implement them. “ Changing the ways people think and work is much more challenging than writing a policy,” she said.

The damage a race-discrimina-tion case does to reputation is undeniable – whatever the organisation. If a firm is perceived as being racially unfair it restricts its potential talent pool and can become a pariah. Because it is less diverse than other organisations, it also is less effective in responding to markets.

“Arguably, the business case is common sense,” said Mercer. “A group of people who all come from the same background and think much the same way won’t do very well in an increasingly diverse and complex marketplace.” The same kind of argument is made for a racially diverse police force – to serve a diverse community well it has to reflect the community it is serving.

However, Mercer argues that simply increasing the number of minority recruits is not enough if an organisation remains “culturally white”.

Introducing the new bill, equality minister Harriet Har-man said organisations could now recruit a female, black or disabled candidate over a white male candidate if the rival candidates were otherwise equally qualified. Her support for positive action is controversial – white men, it has been suggested, need no longer apply.

Ali Dizaei, president of the National Black Police Association, is in favour of positive action. He argues that there are operational advantages to the police – for example in their counter-terrorism and gun-crime efforts – in giving black and ethnic minority candidates certain posts when the alternative is an equally qualified white candidate.

Mercer is less enthusiastic. “It’s a very tricky issue,” she said. “If positive action isn’t delivered very carefully it can create more problems than it solves. Women and ethnic minorities can resist it because they want to be seen to get on through ability only. It can also cause resentment among colleagues who see it as unfair. The problem is there is no such thing as two equally qualified candidates. Positive action is very difficult for employers to get right.”

Leah de Vries, employment lawyer with Pinsent Masons, agrees that well-meaning policies are not enough. She said they certainly won’t save an organisation at a racial-discrim-ination tribunal if it cannot show that it has made substantial efforts – from recruitment to promotion – to create an environment in which racial discrimination cannot thrive.

De Vries said it was no defence at a tribunal to say you were unaware policies were discriminatory. Making sure everyone is treated equally is key, but make sure that when monitoring does turn up issues that they are tackled straightaway.

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