Sutcliffe v Hawker Siddley Aviation Limited: NIRC 1973

Though the 1971 Act made no reference to it, nonetheless there could be an unfair dismissal deriving from a constructive dismissal. An argument that the converse interpretation should be adopted because earlier legislation (the 1965 Act) had defined dismissal expressly so as to include constructive dismissal was roundly rejected: ‘That comparison points, it is said, to Parliament having intended that there should be no room for an ‘unfair constructive dismissal’. We entirely reject that contention. We consider that the omission arose solely because the draftsman thought it unnecessary to include the subsection. We have no doubt that there can be constructive unfair dismissals and that any amendment of the 1971 Act to include a subsection (c) equivalent to that contained in the 1965 Act would have no effect other than to dispose of a misconstruction of the Act.’

Judges:

Sir John Donaldson

Citations:

[1973] ICR 560, [1973] IRLR 304

Statutes:

Industrial Relations Act 1971, Redundancy Payments Act 1965 3(1)(c)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedNottinghamshire County Council v Meikle CA 8-Jul-2004
The claimant was a teacher who had come to suffer a sight disability. She complained that her employers had failed to make reasonable accomodation for her disability, and subsequently she resigned claiming constructive dismissal and damages for . .
CitedMeikle v Nottinghamshire County Council EAT 19-Aug-2003
EAT Disability Discrimination – Less favourable treatment. The appellant brought proceedings against the Respondents alleging that they had failed to make adjustments to her workplace and conditions so as to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment

Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.199222