Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates writes on constructive dismissal.

In case ADJ5901 the Adjudication Officer had to deal with a case of Constructive Dismissal.

The Adjudication Officer held that the employee to bring a Constructive Dismissal claim must show that the actions of the employer were so unreasonable as to make it impossible for the employee to remain in the workplace.

The Adjudication Officer, in our opinion, rightly held that in most cases it is necessary for the employee to raise these concerns with the employer.

In our view the Adjudication Officer has got this decision right. We think it is right that the Adjudication Officer has used the phrase “most cases”.

There will be cases where the action of the employer is so unreasonable such that trust and confidence is so badly broken that the employee is entitled to resign without going through the grievance procedure or raising the issue with the employer. However, in most cases this will not be the position and the employee will need to show that they at least attempted to raise the issue with the employer.

In cases coming to this firm we are consistently finding that people believe that they can simply resign. In a limited number of cases that is the position but in the majority it is not and certainly not without going through the grievance procedures or at least raising the grievance with the employer.