The Respondent brought an appeal against the Adjudication Officer’s decision which determined that the Complainant had been unfairly constructively dismissed by the Respondent. The Adjudication officer upheld the complaint and awarded the sum of €20,000 to the Complainant in compensation. The Respondent then brought an appeal of this decision to the Labour Court.

The Complainant submitted that after working for a period of five months he began to experience abusive behaviour from the Respondent which he reported to the operations manager. He was then advised by the Respondent to ‘watch his back’. The Complainant submitted that the Respondent then reduced the number of shifts allocated to him. The Complainant reported this matter to the Manager who organised a meeting in which the Complainant was shouted at. Subsequently, the Complainant contacted the Respondent to complain of bullying and harassment and to ask that the matter be referred to the HR department. He advised the Respondent that he was unable to work due to illness and depression caused by his treatment at work. The Complainant contended that he was forced to resign having had no adequate response to his complaints of bullying and harassment and having been left off the roster without explanation.

The Respondent submitted that the Complainant had not been forced to leave his employment by reason of the conduct of his employer but rather he had voluntarily terminated his employment by way of resignation. The Respondent argued that the Complainant did not act reasonably in relation to the alleged constructive dismissal in that he failed to make any attempt to resolve the alleged bullying internally before resorting to making a claim of constructive dismissal.

The Court found that, on the admission of the Respondent itself, the Respondent did not follow its own procedure in dealing with any complaint of bullying and harassment made by the Complainant. The Court concluded that the Respondent did undermine an explicitly stated core element of the contract of employment and that failure amounted to a repudiatory breach of that contract. The Court decided that the Complainant was unfairly dismissed from his employment and ordered compensation in the amount of €15,000 to be paid to the Complainant.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2020/july/udd2022.html