Mr Nadin, solicitor For the v Mr Ramsbottom, representative — 2023

The claimant had worked for the respondent since 2001 and resigned on 5 November 2021. The tribunal found that the respondent was not acting unfairly when it introduced monthly pay at the start of furlough in March 2020, but it should have consulted more widely before making that temporary change permanent. It also found that the later underpayment of £40 per month was a clerical error and not deliberate, and that the changes to the discretionary bonus scheme were not shown to be unfair or unachievable.

The tribunal found a further pattern of role reduction. It held that the claimant was demoted in summer 2020 when Adam Sandle was appointed Installations Manager and the claimant's role was reduced, and that a second deliberate demotion occurred on 23 August 2021 when Jeremy Bush was brought in as Installations Manager and the claimant was re-titled Installations Co-ordinator without consultation. The tribunal also found that Mr Daly's email shortly before the grievance hearing undermined the grievance process and left the claimant with an ultimatum. Looking at the conduct cumulatively, the tribunal held that there was a repudiatory breach, that the claimant resigned in response to it, and that he had not affirmed the contract, so the constructive dismissal claim succeeded; the tribunal also upheld the wrongful dismissal claim.

On whistleblowing, the tribunal applied s.43B and s.47B ERA 1996 and cited Cavendish Munro Professional Risks Management Ltd v Geduld, Babula v Waltham Forest College and Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed. It accepted that the first complaint about the move from weekly to monthly pay was capable of amounting to a qualifying disclosure and that the claimant reasonably believed it, but it found that the allegations about work during furlough and FENSA registration did not satisfy the reasonable-belief requirement. The tribunal further found that the disclosures were not made in the public interest and were made only after the grievance process, so the whistleblowing claim failed. Remedy was not determined at this stage; the tribunal invited further submissions on contributory fault and Polkey, and further representations on wrongful dismissal.