Ms R Jackson v NESCOT College — 2022

Ms R Jackson brought constructive unfair dismissal and constructive wrongful dismissal claims after resigning on 14 March 2019 following the outcome of her grievance at NESCOT College. The judgment records that, at a preliminary hearing, she did not pursue complaints of discrimination, harassment or victimisation, so the case proceeded as a dismissal claim only.

The tribunal found that the way the college handled her grievance, taken as a whole, was capable of destroying or seriously damaging trust and confidence and that the college did not have reasonable and proper cause for the way it dealt with matters. It accepted that the grievance process overfocused on the 7 November 2018 meeting, did not sufficiently investigate the wider background she had raised, and did not adequately address the conduct of the Head of Apprenticeships and the Director of Strategic Partnership. The tribunal also accepted that she had not been consulted about the informal grievance outcome that placed her under the Head of Apprenticeships, although that point was not itself the reason for resignation.

The tribunal held that she did not affirm the contract and resigned in response to the way the grievance had been handled, including the fact that she would still be expected to work with the two managers concerned without sufficient reassurance about how their conduct would be addressed. It rejected the Respondent's case that she resigned for other reasons, and accepted that the resignation letter showed she left because she felt the complaints had not been taken seriously. The tribunal also concluded that the contact during sick leave and the timing of the grievance process were not the reasons for her resignation.

On remedy, the tribunal accepted her mitigation evidence. It found that she had tried short-term work through Queen Hair Academy, then worked for Dunelm and later Cheynes Training, and that her loss was mitigated by 6 September 2019. The compensatory award was calculated from agreed gross loss figures, net earnings from the short-term work and Dunelm, and a 15% deduction to reflect a possibility that the employment might have ended in the near future in any event. The final award was £9,150.34, made up of a £1,524 basic award and a £7,626.34 compensatory award; recoupment did not apply and no ACAS uplift was made.