Employment Law and Constructive Dismissal
Constructive dismissal is termination of employment when an employee is forced to resign their job against their will due to the employer's behaviour.
You might have a case for constructive dismissal if:
- The employer has breached your contract and you felt forced to leave due to that breach
- You have not done or said anything that would imply you accepted the breach or the change in employment conditions
Your employer's breach of contract may be one major incident or the last in a series of smaller ones that are serious when taken together.
Some of the common situations include:
- The employer has given you impossible to reach targets, has undermined your authority, demoted you without reason or has taken any other similar actions making it impossible to perform your duties
- The employer is forcing you to accept unreasonable changes to your conditions of employment without your agreement such as: location, working hours, responsibilities
- The employer has failed to protect you if there is a case of bullying, harassment or violence against you by work colleagues
- The employer is forcing you to work in dangerous conditions
If you decide to resign the normal procedure to follow is:
- Speak to your line manager or someone from your HR department
- Follow the standard grievance procedure before taking legal action
If none of the above work and you still plan to leave, you should take legal advice before doing that in order to assess if you have a case of constructive dismissal.
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