Ms Jen Nelson v 15 Renfrewshire Council — 2023

Ms Jen Nelson resigned with immediate effect on 7 November 2022 after a grievance process about events that began on 7 October 2021. The tribunal found that the Head Teacher’s conduct on 7 October 2021 was aggressive and intimidating, and that the stage 1 grievance decision was poor quality, with inadequate reasoning and a procedurally irregular approach to evidence. It also found that Susan Bell was biased against the claimant at stage 1, and that stage 2 did not properly cure those defects.

Despite those findings, the tribunal held that the respondent’s conduct had not caused serious damage to the relationship of trust and confidence by the date of resignation. The decisive factor was that stage 3 of the grievance procedure remained available and was found to be a viable, independent appeal to elected council members, with a realistic prospect of providing a fair hearing and correcting the earlier failings. In that context, the tribunal concluded that the relationship had been damaged but not destroyed or seriously damaged to the level required for a repudiatory breach.

The tribunal rejected the claimant’s submission that John Trainer was biased or that he was required to stop the stage 2 process and restart the grievance from the beginning. It found that he had overseen a flawed process, but not a biased one. Because there was no breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, the claimant’s resignation was not in response to a fundamental breach of contract and therefore did not amount to a dismissal for the purposes of section 95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The unfair dismissal claim accordingly failed.