UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Constructive dismissal
The case involved an unusual situation where an employee had given formal notice of resignation following, from her perception, bullying and difficult behaviour by an employee she managed. Some evidence suggested that thereafter the Respondent asked the Claimant to stay on in employment and that she did so, on condition that the other employee’s conduct was addressed. Her resignation was not formally withdrawn. Staff changed within the Respondent. The date upon which the resignation was to take effect came and went. The Claimant asserted that she assumed that she was staying in employment and that the resignation had been halted or ‘paused’. Almost a month thereafter the Respondent addressed her employment status and determined that she had resigned on notice and that she must leave employment. The Claimant asserted that the EJ had erred in its analysis of the termination of employment; assumed that resignation could only be withdrawn where the requisite agreement was initiated by the employee rather than employee or employer; erred in requiring a resignation be withdrawn by express words only rather than by way of conduct or implication; erred in focussing too heavily on the employer’s apparent errors in not progressing the resignation and failing to consider all matters, particularly how, objectively, the Respondent’s actions appeared to the Claimant.
The appeal was allowed and the matter was remitted to a differently constituted Tribunal. The Employment Judge had failed to engage with key issues about what, precisely, was said between the Claimant and others following the resignation. Without making those important determinations the Tribunal then fell into the errors articulated by the Claimant in the revised grounds of appeal.
Citations:
[2019] UKEAT 0022 – 19 – 2009
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 27 November 2022; Ref: scu.650892