Miss A Clarke v The Secretary of State for Justice — 2022

The claimant resigned from employment in July 2022 and claimed unfair constructive dismissal. The respondent accepted that, if she had been constructively dismissed, the dismissal would have been unfair. The tribunal therefore focused on whether the respondent had committed a repudiatory breach, whether the claimant resigned in response to it, and whether any right to rely on a breach had been affirmed or revived by a last straw.

The tribunal rejected most of the claimant's complaints about management actions, including alleged bullying by Ms Rowe, the conduct of attendance review meetings, the imposition of attendance warnings, and arrangements for the claimant's return to work. It found that the claimant had legitimate grounds of complaint about repeated questioning over working hours, the 24 September 2019 email, delay in the grievance process, delay in the first-instance sick leave excusal process, and a question about childcare arrangements on 29 June 2022.

The tribunal found that the respondent repudiated the claimant's contract by failing to provide a proper and timely means of redress for her grievance, which took about 14 months to determine at first instance and appeal. However, the claimant remained employed for over 15 months after the grievance process ended, which the tribunal found amounted to affirmation of the contract.

The tribunal found that the claimant resigned because of the final written improvement warning issued on 19 July 2022. That warning was found to have been entirely proper and did not operate as a valid last straw reviving the earlier repudiatory breach. The tribunal concluded that no constructive dismissal was established and dismissed the unfair dismissal complaint.