Constructive dismissal

Employees with more than one year's continuous service with an employer are entitled to claim for constructive dismissal.

An employee may claim constructive dismissal when they believe that they have been put in a position in which they have no option but to resign as a direct result of the employer acting in fundamental breach of the employee's contract of employment.

Possible breaches include:

A serious breach of contract (e.g. not paying an employee or sudden demotion for no reason)
Forcing an employee to accept unreasonable changes to their conditions of employment without agreement (e.g. suddenly relocating an employee or making them work night shifts when their contract is only for day work, without consultation)
Bullying, harassment or violence towards an employee by other work colleagues
Making an employee work in dangerous conditions

An employee can resign over one serious incident or due to the build up of a number of incidents. However, they must resign soon after the incident and make a claim for constructive unfair dismissal within three months of resignation.

Constructive Unfair Dismissal

An Employment Tribunal will deal with constructive dismissal as a case of unfair dismissal, which is why it is often described as constructive unfair dismissal.

If the employee considers the dismissal to have been unfair, he or she will be entitled to make an unfair dismissal complaint to an Employment Tribunal.

A Tribunal would first consider whether or not there was a constructive dismissal and then, if there was, decide whether or not the dismissal was in fact unfair in all the circumstances. Remedies for a constructive dismissal are the same as those for unfair dismissal.

Before the statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedures were repealed and the Employment Act 2008 was implemented, employees were required to raise a grievance, before submitting a claim to an Employment Tribunal. However, with the removal of these statutory procedures, this is no longer required.

Nevertheless, employers and employees are encouraged to raise and address work related concerns and disputes in accordance with the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

Whilst it is not possible to prevent an employee from resigning and claiming constructive dismissal, ensuring clear procedures are in place, (such as a Grievance Procedure and Bullying and Harassment policies) can help prevent reaching a point where an employee feels they are left with no option but to resign.