Mrs E Rickman, in person For the v Respondent — 2022

Mrs E Rickman was employed by Fortem Solutions Ltd as an Administrator from 16 April 2018 until her resignation took effect on 13 November 2020. Her annual salary was £23,000 and her net average monthly wage was £1,650. She said that, following incidents from late 2019 onwards, her line manager’s treatment became increasingly critical and that she was forced to resign. The Respondent said she resigned because she anticipated disciplinary action after failing to improve on a performance programme.

The tribunal reviewed the attendance management, conduct and performance issues relied on by the Respondent, including the attendance improvement plan, the written warning, the Christmas party incidents, the birthday leave issue, the reduced bonus, the meetings in June and July 2020, and the Pathway to Success programme launched on 24 August 2020. It found that the Respondent dealt with matters in a robust but appropriate, consistent and procedurally fair way, and it did not accept that Ms Tracey McCombe had singled the Claimant out, bullied her, or mistreated her. The tribunal also accepted that the Claimant found the pandemic period difficult and felt unsupported, but said that did not make the Respondent’s management of her conduct and performance unfair.

Applying the constructive dismissal authorities it had set out, including the statutory framework in sections 94 and 95 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal held that the Claimant had not proved a repudiatory breach, either individually or cumulatively, or a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. It found the performance management evidence showed genuine concerns and that the Pathway to Success process was directed to training and improvement rather than discipline. It also found that the resignation was not caused by any breach: the resignation letter offered to work notice and did not refer to mistreatment, which the tribunal treated as consistent with a pre-emptive resignation in anticipation of possible disciplinary proceedings. The claim therefore failed.