Mr N Davidson v Birmingham Ormiston Academy FINAL HEARING — 2022

Mr N Davidson worked for Birmingham Ormiston Academy from 1 October 2012 as Director of Curriculum Support/SEN Coordinator and resigned by letter dated 18 July 2018, after agreement with his trade union representative while facing allegations of potential gross misconduct. His claim originally included constructive unfair dismissal and direct age discrimination, but the age discrimination complaint was later withdrawn. The tribunal therefore determined only whether he had been constructively dismissed.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's allegation of significant bullying by Mr Pitt and found that several matters he relied on, including line management arrangements, the handling of the Student Z counselling issue, a missed meeting about his EHCP report, and the handling of the Y parental complaint, did not amount to a serious breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. It found that Ms Cheshire had reasonable and proper cause to deal with the competing staff complaints informally and to give the claimant the line manager change he had requested.

The tribunal found that the events of 3 July 2018, when the claimant instructed a teaching assistant not to attend X's citizenship lesson despite the revised timetable, gave Ms Cheshire reasonable and proper cause to accuse him of insubordination and to begin disciplinary proceedings. Although it considered the investigation into that incident to be inadequate and described the 4 July 2018 letter as ill-thought-out, it held that the cumulative effect of the events had not seriously damaged trust and confidence before the disciplinary hearing invitation. The claimant's reliance on pre-termination negotiations was excluded by section 111A ERA 1996, and in any event the tribunal was not satisfied that anything said in those discussions amounted to a last straw. The constructive dismissal claim therefore failed and no remedy was awarded.