Constructive Dismissal

Dismissal is most commonly thought of as the termination of the contract of employment by the employer. For the purposes of employment protection legislation, however, the definition is somewhat wider. This Supplement examines the principles that govern the law on constructive dismissal and explains how they are treated in practice by employment tribunals.

The Supplement is set out as follows:

• Chapter 1 examines the doctrine of fundamental breach in the context of employment contracts and looks at the sort of breach that is likely to be regarded as 'fundamental'
• Chapter 2 deals with the issues surrounding the employee's resignation in response to the employer's breach of contract. In particular, it looks at the questions of 'causation' - the employer's breach must have caused the employee to resign - and 'affirmation' - the employee must not have delayed too long before resigning, thus affirming the contract and losing the right to resign
• Chapter 3 is concerned with constructive dismissal in the context of unfair dismissal. The chapter examines the concepts of fair constructive dismissals and automatically unfair constructive dismissals
• Chapter 4 deals with constructive dismissal in the context of redundancy
• Chapter 5 examines constructive dismissal in the context of the transfer of undertakings
• Chapter 6 looks at the issues surrounding compensation for constructive dismissal.

This Supplement was published in May 2000.