What is constructive dismissal?
Constructive dismissal is when an employer, in effect, forces you to leave your job. The employer could, for example:
- Not pay you or demote you for no reason.
- Change how you work. For instance, he could force you to work night shifts while your contract is for daytime work.
- The employer could force you to work in unsafe conditions.
- Allow other employees to bully you.
The employer’s breach of contract can be a series of incidents or just one serious incident. Remember that for your constructive dismissal claim to be successful, the incident(s) must be bad enough to justify to the Employment Tribunal that you couldn’t stay in your job any longer.
A constructive dismissal case can be notoriously difficult to prove, and not many claims win. The primary legal test will be proving that your boss ignored their contractual obligations toward you.
If you think you have a constructive dismissal claim, you must speak to one of our employment solicitors as soon as possible. We might advise you to leave your job immediately, as your employer might argue later that you’ve stayed, and therefore you did not have a problem with your ‘new’ work conditions. Constructive dismissal is different from unfair dismissal.
