EAT Unfair Dismissal : Constructive Dismissal
Employment Judge Amin had erred in law by construing the contract of employment as conferring a unilateral power of variation on the employer and a finding that the purported unilateral variation of it by the employer was a repudiatory breach of contract would be substituted; Wandsworth London Borough Council v D’Silva [1998] IRLR 193, Security and Facilities Division v Hayes [2001] IRLR 81 and Bateman v ASDA Stores Ltd [2010] IRLR 370 considered and applied.
The second issue which Employment Judge Amin had to decide was whether the repudiatory breach had been accepted by the resignation and that was a question of causation. If the repudiatory breach was part of the cause of the resignation, then that suffices because the law does not require or call for sole causation or predominant effect; Nottinghamshire County Council v Meikle [2004] IRLR 703, Ford v Abbycars (West Horndon) Ltd [2008] UKEAT/0472/07 and Wright v North Ayrshire Council [2014] IRLR 4. Employment Judge Amin failed to consider either of her alternatives (paragraph 39 – her analysis of the resignation letter and paragraph 40 – the answer in cross examination as to her state of health) from the point of view as to whether purported variation was part of the cause of the resignation as it arguably was in either case. This issue had to be remitted; Jafri v Lincoln College [2014] IRLR 544.
Hand QC HHJ
[2015] UKEAT 0305 – 14 – 0801
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.543475
