Miss Portia Marapara v Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust — 2022

Miss Portia Marapara worked for Look Ahead from 29 May 2019 and transferred to Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust on 1 April 2021 under TUPE. She resigned with immediate effect on 28 May 2021 and later tried to rescind that resignation on 2 June 2021, but the tribunal found that attempt ineffective because she did not work after 28 May and did not accept the respondent's attempts to clarify the position in July.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's factual case. It found Mrs Bhoobun and Ms Tayo to be honest and credible, and found the claimant unreliable on important matters, including her account of the 23 March 2021 meeting. It accepted that she attended that meeting and that the notes reflected the discussions. The tribunal found that the Trust directly informed the claimant about the changes following TUPE, and that Ms Tayo's involvement was a supportive arrangement rather than a way of bypassing the claimant.

On constructive dismissal, the tribunal held that there was no breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. It found that the claimant remained responsible for the day-to-day running of Suffolk House, that the changes to processes were part of the Trust's standardisation after transfer, and that the claimant had been told about the new structure at meetings on 8, 19 and 26 April 2021. The tribunal rejected the allegations that Mrs Bhoobun mocked or bullied the claimant, or that the claimant had been kept out of management information. It also found that the claimant had been added to the staff bank and that any delay in activation was administrative.

Because there was no breach, the constructive dismissal claim failed. The tribunal said the claimant resigned because she was unhappy with the changes to her role after the TUPE transfer, not because of any repudiatory breach by the respondent. On the wages claim, the tribunal found that the respondent had paid two months' notice and the outstanding annual leave, overtime and on-call sums, so there had been no unlawful deduction from wages. The respondent's overpayment counterclaim was recorded as settled after offsets and the final £28.73 payment.