Mr O Ojo v CT Plus (Yorkshire) Community Interest Company — 2019

The claimant, Mr O Ojo, resigned on 31 August 2016 and alleged constructive unfair dismissal under section 95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. By the time of the final hearing, the disability discrimination and holiday pay claims had been withdrawn, and the direct race discrimination and unlawful deduction claims had been struck out, leaving the constructive dismissal complaint for determination.

The tribunal considered six grievances raised between February 2015 and February 2016. It found that the first two grievances did not leave any substantial ongoing issue by 24 March 2015, that the third grievance against another driver was withdrawn on 8 May 2015, that the fourth grievance about HW was resolved by the investigation report and measures put in place in April 2016, and that the fifth and sixth grievances about the handling of a sexual harassment complaint had no substance. It accepted that the respondent’s grievance handling was inadequate because the grievances were not formally closed, but it held that the failures were procedural rather than substantive.

Applying the authorities on constructive dismissal and the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, including Western Excavating, Woods, and Omilaju, the tribunal found that no individual grievance and no cumulative combination of them amounted to a fundamental or repudiatory breach of contract. It also found that the claimant delayed too long before resigning, so any earlier breach had in any event been affirmed. The tribunal held that the resignation was prompted by the separate pay dispute rather than by any breach established on the evidence, and it dismissed the unfair dismissal claim.