Heather Platt revisits the law of constructive dismissal
The law of constructive dismissal has seen some interesting developments in the last two years. The well settled principles in the leading case of Western Excavations (ECC) Ltd v Sharp [1978] QB 761 CA (Civ Div), [1978] IRLR 27 have provided clear guidance to lawyers and students for 30 odd years have been somewhat in the spotlight. There has been a line of authority which sought to apply the band of reasonable responses test to constructive unfair dismissal cases.
This article will consider the line of authority leading to the Court of Appeal decision of Bournemouth University Higher Education Corporation v Buckland [2010] EWCA Civ 121, [2010] All ER (D) 299 (Feb) and the more recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) cases in light of Buckland.
The law
The relevant law is set out in s 95(1)(c) Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) but in reality is a hybrid between statutory and contract law, as the employee typically seeks to rely on breach
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