Interesting example
However, I doubt that his employer would be able to sack him (at least not legally or without potentially significant compensation) as I doubt that they would be able to enforce the reputational clause (if he had one) in his contract - the key being that this wasn't aligned to discrimination legislation (wasn't racist, homophobic etc)
It is a difficult balance - where is the line drawn? The danger is that it is just used to get rid of anyone a business doesn't like rather than their being a justifiable reason (performance, gross misconduct etc)
Agree, a very tricky one legally speaking, they could just do what the company I work for do, have a restructure and just get rid of anyone whose face doesn't fit. There is usually a way of getting rid of someone if they want to, and put the effort in to do so.