The article defines three clusters of policies for the prevention and elimination of ethnic discrimination that are used in the fight against ethnic discrimination. Equal opportunity policies, positive discrimination policies, diversity management policies represent three possible paths that a society could take advantage of when providing for greater equality amongst members of different ethnic groups. The purpose of the article is to check to what degree the above three clusters of policies are useful in the fight against ethnic discrimination at workplaces. The author's interest is to what extent can these clusters of policies effectively eliminate ethnic discrimination at workplaces, and to what extent they are in accordance with the principles of fairness upon which the contemporary workplace is based. She analyses the three clusters of policies for the prevention of ethnic discrimination through the prism of the three principles of fairness: the principle of need, the principle of equality and the principle of equity. From the relation among the three clusters of policies and the principles of fairness workplaces it can be observed that the three clusters of policies are based upon different perceptions as to what is »fair«, and affect activities of individuals at workplaces in different ways.