Claimant was constructively dismissed when the Senior Management Team was told that the company and the claimant had ‘parted ways’.

The claimant was initially employed as Chief Financial Officer of the respondent and later was the Finance Director.  Her employment began on 1st June 2022 and ended on 20th October 2023.

The central point arose on 20th October 2023. The issue related to the claimant’s evidence and the evidence of Mr Cullen. It was found that the claimant’s account was accepted as there were grave concerns about Mr Cullen’s credibility. The claimant’s evidence was supported by her witness and the contemporaneous documentation. A conversation took place internally where Mr Cullen was found to have said that the claimant was blackmailing him because of attitude and behaviour of other staff. The claimant confronted Mr Cullen about this in the afternoon.  The claimant outlined a history of gaslighting from Mr Cullen.   It was found that the claimant said in the afternoon meeting that Mr Cullen kept telling lies and at the end of the meeting she said that she couldn’t take it any more than that she had to go before she would fall out with Mr Cullen.  She left at 3.30pm and packed her work laptop. Mr Cullen’s position was that the claimant said at about 11am that she was resigning with immediate effect and that she was clearing her office.  This was not accepted by the Tribunal.

The claimant continued to work from home and told others in the office that they could ring her. Mr Cullen was aware that the claimant continued to work after she had left the office. This went against the suggestion that she had immediately resigned at 11am. Mr Cullen called the Senior Management Team at 5.30pm and informed them that the claimant and the company had ‘parted ways’. A member of that team rang the claimant informing her of the nature of the conversation. The claimant took that as words of termination of the contract. The Tribunal accepted that it was reasonable for the claimant to take those words as repudiatory breach of contract and that she had accepted it when she informed Mr Cullen that she was coming into clear her office.

A large aspect of this case related to the credibility of the main witnesses – that being the claimant and Mr Cullen, the Managing Director.  The Tribunal noted that Mr Cullen’s evidence was ‘vague’ and had made statements which could be clearly contradicted with other evidence. The fact that the claimant’s evidence was largely accepted meant that the claimant’s case was largely followed and was successful.  The Tribunal found that as a result of Mr Cullen’s conversation with the Senior Management Team and how that was relayed to the claimant that the claimant then resigned, and she was constructively dismissed.  There was then no fair reason, or the dismissal put forward by the respondent.  As a result, the dismissal was unfair.  The Tribunal found that there was no contributory conduct on the claimant’s part and did not reduce the compensation.

Bearing in mind the basic award and the compensatory award the amount of total compensation given to the claimant was £87,896.41.

This case demonstrates the importance of clear communication when it comes to resignations and to making decisions to dismiss. The fact that the Managing Director had said that they had parted ways led the Tribunal to determine that there had been a repudiatory breach of contract and that the claimant had been constructively dismissed.  This put the respondent in a very difficult situation in terms of being able to defend against the claim for unfair dismissal.  As a result, it led to a finding against them and a hefty sum of compensation considering the level of employment the claimant was in.

NI Tribunal decisions are available on the OITFET website.