Employment Law: Unfair Dismissal – Constructive Dismissal – 'Last Straw'
The case of Bell v The Spirit Cluster Ltd [2005] concerned a claim for unfair and constructive dismissal. The employment tribunal held {that a} series of acts, by the employer, cumulatively amounted to repudiation of the worker's contract of employment.
The employee was a manager of a national chain of pubs and restaurants. He brought a criticism of unfair constructive dismissal against his employer in the use tribunal on the grounds of failure to support him throughout a period of a year throughout his career. He alleged that:
he had been harassed by the senior managers relating to changes to his and his wife's single contracts to a lower-paid joint contract;
he had been bullied and his grievance initially ignored;
his grievance had been partially upheld but the bullying had continued;
the employer's conduct amounted to a elementary breach of his contract of employment – the implied term of mutual trust and confidence (the cause of his resignation);
his dismissal had been unfair in all the circumstances.
The tribunal found that, in view of the cumulative result of the course of conduct by the employer, there had been a elementary breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence in the employee's contract of employment, and it absolutely was that breach that had been the effective reason behind the worker's resignation. The employee's claim of unfair constructive dismissal was upheld. The employer appealed to the Employment Attractiveness Tribunal (EAT) against that decision. The employer's charm was dismissed.
The EAT found that:-
the check for constructive dismissal was whether the employer's conduct amounted to a repudiatory breach of the worker's contract of employment in relation to the implied term of mutual trust and confidence;
a comparatively minor act would possibly be sufficient to entitle the employee to resign if it was the last straw in a very series of incidents;
in this case, nothing had been done to stop the chain of causation;
the employee had continually complained about the dearth of support, and therefore the tribunal might not be criticised as a result of its conclusions.
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© RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note will not give a comprehensive or complete statement of the law referring to the problems mentioned nor will it constitute legal advice. It is meant solely to highlight general issues. Specialist legal recommendation ought to perpetually be sought in relation to particular circumstances.
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