EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case no 4101244/2020 (V) Held by video conference call on and November 2020 Employment Judge: W A Meiklejohn Mr P Haughey v McCurrach UK Ltd — 2020

The claimant was employed as a Business Analyst from 5 November 2016. In September 2018 he accepted revised terms that increased his salary to £46,000, changed his title to Senior Business Analyst, and provided for a £1,500 retention bonus. In early 2019 the BA team was busy and under-resourced, and the claimant raised concerns about workload, leadership, and migraines. He met with his line manager and HR in April 2019 and was told to raise a grievance through the respondent's grievance procedure, but he did not submit a formal written grievance.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant genuinely perceived that discussion of blockers was discouraged and that the BA team was under pressure, but it found no basis for concluding that HR were supposed to be progressing a grievance on his behalf. It held that the grievance procedure was available to him, that the advice to use it was correct, and that his later complaint was not advanced because he did not follow that route. His resignation letter of 4 September 2019 gave no reason for leaving, although his later feedback letter said that leadership changes had lost IT support and that he felt the grievance process was flawed.

Applying section 95(1)(c) ERA 1996 and the constructive dismissal authorities it cited, including Western Excavating, Malik, Kaur, Omilaju, Buckland, Wright v North Ayrshire Council, Leeds Dental Team and Blackburn v Aldi Stores, the tribunal found there was no last straw, no repudiatory breach, and no cumulative course of conduct amounting to a breach of mutual trust and confidence. It concluded that the respondent's conduct had not entitled the claimant to resign without notice, so he had not been dismissed and the constructive unfair dismissal claim was dismissed. No monetary award was made.