Mr Adam Marlow v MYCITYDEAL Ltd — 2019

Mr Marlow was employed by MyCityDeal Limited from September 2014 and became a Divisional Sales Manager in July 2017. The tribunal accepted that there were performance concerns before the resignation, including criticism of management style, team resignations and the introduction of an informal PIP process in February 2019. It rejected a number of the claimant's factual allegations, including the alleged mocking of a colleague's accent on 23 January 2019, the claimed comments at the 29 January 2019 meeting, the characterisation of the skip-level meetings as secret one-to-ones, and the suggestion that the PIP was a formal device designed to make him fail.

The tribunal did accept that at the 5 February 2019 PIP meeting Mr Marritt made a comment about 'burying people' in the claimant's presence. It held that, in the context of a performance-management meeting, that comment was likely to seriously damage trust and confidence and was made without reasonable and proper cause. However, the tribunal found that the remark was directed to JD in response to a reaction, not to the claimant personally, and it did not treat the incident as having been raised in a way that showed it was the effective cause of the resignation.

The grievance investigation and outcome were not upheld, but the tribunal found that Ms Brown carried out a reasonable investigation and that her conclusions were open to her on the evidence. Applying s.95(1)(c) ERA 1996 and the authorities on trust and confidence and the 'final straw' doctrine, including Omilaju, Kaur and Williams, the tribunal held that the grievance outcome was not a repudiatory breach and did not contribute to any cumulative breach. It concluded that Mr Marlow resigned because his grievance had not been upheld on 15 March 2019, not in response to the earlier 'bury' comment, and the constructive dismissal claim was dismissed.