Part-time and fixed-term employees


It is unlawful to select employees for redundancy because they are part-time or fixed-term employees, without objective justification. As well as being potential indirect sex discrimination, it is likely to be a breach of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, and the Part-time Workers Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment Regulations 2000 (see Chapter 2). In Whiffen v Milham Ford Girls School [2001] IRLR 468, a policy of selecting temporary employees for redundancy first was indirectly sex discriminatory because women are more likely than men to hold temporary posts. 



Scoring employees for their ability to show flexibility, for example, as to locations, shifts or work patterns, is likely to discriminate indirectly against women, who are more likely to have caring responsibilities, and must be objectively justified (London Transport v Edwards [1997] IRLR 157).