Constructive dismissal

Case 4: the facts

Sales manager Mr Ford resigned and claimed constructive dismissal after a series of actions by his employer that he said amounted to a breach of contract. The final one of these was the removal of Ford’s company car while he was off sick. An employment tribunal found that the car was a pool car rather than a company car which he had a right to retain but upheld his claim because the employer should have questioned whether Ford needed it to attend medical appointments.

The ruling

The EAT held that the tribunal had failed to establish that there was a fundamental breach of contract entitling Ford to resign. A failure to query whether Ford needed the car was not a breach of contract and neither was any of Ford’s other complaints including a failure to pay telephone expenses some time previously, which he had never queried before. The case was sent to a different tribunal for a re-hearing. However, the EAT did confirm that if any of the complaints had amounted to a breach of contract this would have been enough to establish a claim of constructive dismissal even if others had not; the breach does not have to be the only cause of resignation.