Miss C Walter v Q Bars and Restaurants Ltd — 2020

Miss C Walter began working for Q Bars and Restaurants Ltd on 1 August 2013, initially as a cleaner, and later became the general manager at the Mulberry pub in Farnham. By the end of the employment she was on a salary of £28,000 a year. Her contract provided for 40 hours a week, variable according to business need, and the tribunal found there was no contractual entitlement to bonus, although the respondent said it intended to consider a discretionary bonus of 10% of net profit for 2017.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's case that she had been subjected to an "extreme level of continued abuse" by Jonathan Quelch. It found that many of the matters relied on were ordinary management issues or incidents involving staff members, that the claimant's role as general manager included dealing with staffing and disciplinary matters, and that when she asked for support it was generally given. The tribunal also found that she was not routinely required to work excessive hours, that the respondent had taken steps to replace departing staff, and that the complaints about the management course, the dismissal of staff after the unwanted advance in December 2016, the substitute manager, Mr North and the Halloween criticism did not amount individually to repudiatory conduct.

The claimant resigned on 15 November 2017 after the exchange of texts and emails between 10 and 12 November. Applying Western Excavating v Sharp, Malik v BCCI, London Borough of Waltham Forest v Omilaju, Kaur v Leeds NHS Trust, Wright v North Ayrshire Council and s.95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal accepted that the resignation was in response to the November events but held that those events were not a repudiatory breach of contract and did not destroy or seriously damage mutual trust and confidence. It also found that the earlier matters, taken cumulatively, did not cross that threshold. The complaint of unfair dismissal therefore failed and was dismissed. No remedy was awarded.