Constructive Dismissal: Home Secretary Priti Patel labelled as “Bully”

In his resignation speech, the Home Office’s most senior official, Sir Philip Rutnam, made a number of allegations of bullying behaviour against Home Secretary, Priti Patel. Amongst those allegations, Sir Rutnam complained that Ms Patel was routinely observed to have been, “swearing” at staff, “belittling people”, and, “making unreasonable and repeated demands”.

Sir Rutnam has stated that he has refused an offer of Settlement, preferring instead to pursue a claim of Constructive Dismissal against the Home Office.

What is Constructive Dismissal?

Constructive dismissal is the term used where an employee resigns in response to their employer’s conduct in breach of an important term of their employment contract. This can be the breach of a written term (i.e. contained within a contract of employment) or by an implied term (i.e. its general duty of care over the employee). In order to succeed in the claim, an employee would need to demonstrate that:

1. The employer has committed a serious breach of contract; and
2. The employee resigned in response to the breach; and
3. The employee did not wait too long after the ‘fundamental breach’ before resigning.

It may not be just one incident that amounts to a fundamental breach; sometimes it is a series of incidents or pattern of behaviour which, taken as a whole, amounts to such conduct.

What amounts to a Constructive Dismissal claim?

Whilst every case is different, the following situations have previously been found to give rise to a claim of constructive dismissal:

• Demotions for no valid reason;
• Suffering bullying, harassment or other discrimination;
• Consistently being underpaid, or suffering a reduction in salary; and
• Failure from the employer to address a grievance properly.

It is recommended that an employee raises their issues in writing in the first instance, by way of a formal grievance, before considering whether to take further action..

In deciding whether a constructive dismissal is ‘unfair’, the tribunal has to decide whether, in the circumstances, the employer’s decision to ‘dismiss’ the employee was a reasonable decision that a reasonable employer would have followed. It is therefore possible that an employee could succeed in a claim of constructive dismissal without it being found to be unfair, although this will generally depend on whether the employer had good and valid reasons for acting as they did.

What are the Time Limits?

You have 3 months minus a day from the date your employment terminated by which to bring a claim to the tribunal, although extra time will usually be allowed to follow the Acas early conciliation process. You can only claim constructive unfair dismissal if you are an employee and have worked for your employer for at least 2 years.

If an employee is considering making a constructive dismissal claim at an Employment Tribunal, they should be aware that it can be a difficult claim to win and independent legal advice should be sought before making the decision to resign.

If you need advice or help in relation to a constructive dismissal claim, feel free to contact our Employment Team who will be happy to assist on 01908 660966/01604 828282 or by email at employment@franklins-sols.co.uk