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This background note is to accompany the case (493-012-1). The case abstract is as follows: A local authority internal audit manager claims unsuccessfully for constructive dismissal in an Industrial Tribunal. A black female secretary accused him of racial prejudice, and the case was taken up by the authority''s Principal Race Relations Adviser and a Black Workers Support Group. Part of the evidence was an article written in the in-house magazine of the trade union, an article in a widely read local government magazine, and a letter to The Times, all criticizing the Council''s affirmative action policy. The Director of Finance sets up a panel of enquiry into the allegations, but meanwhile the manager finds a job elsewhere and resigns. He then appeals to a Tribunal, which is unable to find the conditions that need to apply in a constructive dismissal case. It does, however, have severe criticism for the authority. The case study raises issues of business ethics, whistleblowing, equal opportunities and race relations that cannot fail to provoke discussion and debate.