so today I want to discuss the situation where you may be considering leaving your job you may
feel that you're not getting a fair Shake in the workplace you're not being treated
fairly or there's some other issue that's going to cause you to leave your job and you
may also be considering bringing a claim for constructive dismissal then listening to this
uh brief conversation a brief dialogue from me might be of use to you because you'd be well
advised to read a recent decision from the WRC the workplace relations Commission in a case
called Brian Griffin versus Sage there is a blog post on my website employmentrates ireland.com
which synopsizes the case itself but it also contains a link to the decision from the
WRC and spending 10 or 15 minutes reading that decision from the WRC would be well worth your
while because the adjudicator Mr Dolan goes into the whole area of constructive dismissal what the
proofs are required in order to win and sets out and refers in his decision to a lot of decisions
a lot of decisions from the labor court and the employment appeals tribunal and from the WRC
and indeed from the Civil courts down through the years about constructive dispensely cases
the background to this particular case was that Mr Griffin resigned his position of two
and a half years with sage he brought a claim for constructive dismissal the background to
the decision for Mr Griffin to resign was that another person had left the job and in the exit
interview they had apparently made a complaint of or an allegation of bullying against Mr Griffin
Mr Griffin felt aggrieved about this and felt that he had suffered reputational damage the difficulty
for sage however was that the accuser had left the company and the company's position was that there
wasn't a whole pile that they could do given that the accuser the complainant the person
who leveled the acquisition against Mr Griffin had left the company their hands were tied Mr Griffin
felt stressed as a consequence he felt that his reputation had been tarnished and he believed
he had no option but to resign his physician immediately with the company to protect his
reputation and health he sought loss of earnings and compensation and the payment of his legal fees
firstly the WRC does not award legal fees so that was never a runner secondly compensation
is not really a runner either or he's entitled to is compensation by way of a calculation of
his loss of earnings he's essentially entitled to his loss of earnings the adjudicator in the
decision dealt very comprehensively with the law surrounding construct of dismissal and that's why
I refer you to my blog post which contains a link to the decision because it's pretty comprehensive
and it will put you straight it'll make it pretty clear what you need to do you refer to the Berber
versus Stone storage decision now I think that was either a high court or a Supreme Court decision
it says that the conduct of the employer complained of must be unreasonable and without
proper cause and its effect on the employee must be judged objectively reasonably and sensibly
in order to determine if it is such that the employee cannot be expected to put up with it
basically in order to win a claim for constructive dismissal the employee has
to prove uh breach of contract by the employer and or conduct that was so unreasonable that
the employee had no choice but to leave and the employee must be here reasonably as well
but the employee in Behaving reasonably would be expected to Avail of the internal procedures
first the internal grievance procedures in Murray versus Rockville shellfish limit is referred to
by the adjudicator he's been well established that a question of constructive dismissal must
be considered under two headings entitlement and reasonableness employee must act reasonably
in terminating his contract for employment resignation must not be the first option taken by
the employee and although the reasonable options including following the grievance procedure must
be explored an employee must pursue his grievance through the procedure laid down before taking the
DraStic step of resigning this is what Mr Griffin did and this is why Mr Griffin lost his case in BT
versus Bayside supermarkets the tribunal considers that it's reasonable to expect that procedures
laid down in such agreements be substantially followed in appropriate cases by employer and
employee as the case may be and this view was expressed and followed by the employment appeals
tribunal in Conway versus Ulster Bank limiters again to the long line of decisions from the WRC
from the labor Court from the employment appeals tribunal and the need for the employee to show
that they've acted reasonably in the circumstances intending tendering their resignation
for example by using the employer's grievance procedure there's also cases referred to ranching
versus Alliance worldwide other cases where the employee must demonstrate that to pursued their
grievance through the procedures laid down in the contract to employment so essentially also
there's two tests for constructive dismissal the contract test and the reasonableness test and it's
an either or an and or test in other words if the WRC is not satisfied that the contract test has
been proven in other words if the employee is unable to show that the employer has breached
the contract of employment then it's obliged to consider the reasonless reasonableness of a
test that is the employer conducts himself or is Affairs so unreasonably that the employee
cannot fairly be expected to put up with it any longer then the employee is Justified in leaving
the WRC held at the claim must fail as Mr Griffin failed to communicate his grievance before
resigning and he refused to go through a formal process to reach a resolution of the problem I
agree with the respondent the WRC judicator said that it was the complainant's unwillingness to go
through a formal process that ended his employment with the respondent and it's for this reason that
I must now find that the complaint as presented is not well founded and therefore fails the case
is Brian Griffin versus Sage it's I did a blog post on my website employment rights ireland.com
under a link in that blog post to the actual decision to serve it's well worth a read but
if you take one thing and one thing only from it it is that if you're considering
resigning your position and if you're thinking of bringing a claim for constructive dismissal
you really do need to have exhausted the internal grievance procedures or
whatever is the appropriate procedure in the workplace first hope you find this
video useful if you do I'd appreciate if you give the Thumbs Up Down Below thanks a lot