Ms C Ibbotson, counsel For the v Respondent — 2019

The claimant worked as a live-in general manager at the Cross Keys. The tribunal found that the right to occupy the attached house was part of his contract, either as an express term arising from the Cross Keys transfer or, alternatively, as an implied term. It found that by 18 July 2017 the respondent had decided to remove the claimant from the house, that the bedsit offered as an alternative was cramped and unsuitable compared with the house, and that the claimant was told he would have to move into the bedsit, find other accommodation, or resign.

The tribunal held that serving notice to quit on 11 September 2017 was a breach of contract and a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence because it was calculated to force the claimant to resign. It rejected the respondent's case that the claimant affirmed the contract by waiting until 14 November 2017 to resign, finding that the delay was a pragmatic response to the loss of both his home and employment while he tried to secure alternative work and accommodation.

On causation and fairness, the tribunal accepted that the claimant resigned in response to the breach and therefore was constructively dismissed. It did not accept that the respondent had established its asserted business reason on the evidence before it, noting that none of the witnesses were decision-makers and that the rationale for requiring him to leave the house was not clearly explained. It also rejected the respondent's contributory fault case, treating the claimant's attempts to find other work, his non-pursuit of unsuitable vacancies, and his grievance and appeal conduct as mitigation rather than matters contributing to the dismissal. The extracted reasons do not set out any monetary remedy or award.