Dismissal 




Employers who dismiss for discriminatory reasons are in breach of equality law. Employees can bring a claim for discriminatory dismissal from the first day of their employment. There is no service requirement. See also Chapter 10: Dismissal. 




Employees who resign rather than carry out their employer’s instructions to discriminate are also protected even if they are not the target of the discrimination, for example, if they are not black but are instructed to discriminate against a black applicant.




The ending of a fixed-term contract can be indirect discrimination if the impact of the decision falls more heavily on a group with a protected characteristic. In Whiffen v Milham Ford Girls School [2001] IRLR 468, the Court of Appeal held that a policy of making temporary workers redundant first was indirectly discriminatory, since it resulted in significantly more female than male workers losing their jobs.