Mirror mirror: employees' obligations
Hayes solicitors recently represented an employer in a successful case before the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The EAT’s decision is a noteworthy one, as it sets out employees’ obligations to conform to grievance procedures.
The employee claimed constructive dismissal where she had resigned on the basis of what she contended was an unacceptable demotion by her employer when she was reassigned from one department to another. The Tribunal, in dismissing her claim, found that the claimant had not meaningfully engaged in the company’s grievance procedure when taking issue with the reassignment. It indicated that an employee has an obligation to observe fair procedures before resigning on foot of a grievance. The Tribunal remarked that she had not observed those procedures. An interesting comment made by the Tribunal was that the procedures which the employee must observe can be regarded as a “mirror image” of those procedures which must be observed by an employer when taking disciplinary action against an employee.
One of the main reasons for the Tribunal’s finding was the fact that the employee had prepared her letter of resignation the night before a final meeting with the employer’s Personnel Director to discuss the grievance. At no stage during that meeting had she indicated an intention to resign.
The Tribunal also remarked, in communicating its decision, that it did not accept that the reassignment of the employee to another department within the claimant’s employment had been a “demotion”.
The case could be important as a precedent for employers in those situations where an employee resigns on foot of a grievance, but appears simply to be “going through the motions” in raising the grievance before resigning.