Background:

The Complainant was employed from 17th January 2008 initially as Group Financial Officer. In 2014, she was promoted as Chief Financial Officer with the Respondent.  The Complainant offered her resignation in July 2018. She submitted that she was constructively dismissed from her employment. The Respondent refuted the allegation of constructive dismissal and contended that the Complainant had other avenues open to her to pursue her grievances. The Respondent submitted that they did all that could be reasonably expected and fully discharged their duty to their employee.

The Complainant asserted that unknown to her, the Respondent and the Management Team actively commenced sourcing a new CFO in 2016. In 2015, a skills review was undertaken by HR. The Complainant asserted she was set up to fail. The outcome of the review which was not disclosed to the Complainant was that she had little or no potential to progress to top team level. She alleged that the repudiatory conduct by the employer following the invocation of the grievance procedure ultimately led to her resignation. The Complainant argued that her employer had repudiated the implied terms of trust and confidence in her contract of employment.

The Respondent submitted that the burden of proof rested on the Complainant to establish that she had no alternative but to resign. It was submitted that the grievance was heard and issued in an efficient and professional manner. It was submitted that the Respondent did not consider the relationship between it and the Complainant to be irretrievably broken and that the Complainant's selective interpretation of the investigator’s report was disingenuous. It was submitted that ultimately the Complainant's grievances were not upheld. The Respondent contended that the Complainant had made allegations about a meeting that she did not attend and that she failed to provide any supporting evidence to substantiate the allegations. The Respondent argued that the Complainant had alternatives open to her – accepting the outcome of the grievance process or in the alternative raising an additional grievance.

The Adjudication Officer concluded that the Complainant had been constructively dismissed from her employment. The Adjudication Officer noted the Respondent had engaged in a flawed investigative process which failed to meet the standards of objectivity, confidentiality, and thoroughness. The Adjudication Officer found the Respondent failed to observe their own handbook with respect to “job changes”. Additionally, the Adjudication Officer found the Respondent conducted itself in relation to the Complainant in a manner which was destructive of a relationship of mutual trust and confidence.

Outcome:

The Adjudication Officer found that the Complainant had been constructively dismissed and awarded the Complainant the sum of €45,000.

Practical Guidance for Employers:

This case outlined that it is settled law that every contract of employment contains an implied term that the parties will maintain mutual trust and confidence in their working relations with each other. The definition of constructive dismissal under the Acts provides two tests, either or both of which may be invoked by an employee. The first test is the contract test where the worker argues an entitlement to terminate the contract. In such circumstances, where an employer commits a repudiatory breach of contract, the employee is entitled to accept the repudiation and consider him or herself dismissed. However, not every breach of contract will give rise to repudiation. It must be a breach of an essential term which goes to the root of the contract. An additional reasonableness test may also be relied upon. This test asks whether the employer conducts his or her affairs in relation to the employee so unreasonably that the employee cannot be fairly expected to put up with it any longer. Thus, an employer’s conduct may not amount to a breach of contract but could nonetheless be regarded as so unreasonable as to justify the employee in leaving their employment. In this case, the Adjudication Officer upheld the Complainant's complaint of constructive dismissal and found that she was left with no option but to resign from her employment.

The full case is here:
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2022/december/adj-00019422.html