Ms S Flatman v Essex County Council — 2019

The Claimant was employed as a Learning Support Assistant and was required to assist a pupil who used a wheelchair and specialist equipment. The Tribunal accepted the Claimant's evidence that this work involved weight-bearing and at times lifting or supporting the pupil, and that she repeatedly requested manual handling training from September 2017 onwards. The Tribunal found that manual handling training specific to the task had not been provided by the time she resigned.

The Tribunal found that the Claimant resigned because of the ongoing failure to provide manual handling training, and accepted that there was a breach of the obligation to provide that training. It also found that the Claimant had not waived that breach and that the failure to provide a risk assessment was not itself the matter centrally in her mind when she resigned.

The Tribunal concluded, however, that the breach was not a fundamental breach going to the root of the contract. Before the resignation, the Respondent had agreed restricted duties to avoid lifting in the short term and had proposed moving the Claimant to another class as a longer-term measure. The Tribunal found those steps demonstrated concern for the Claimant's safety and meant the constructive dismissal claim failed.