Mr M Reid v Hugh Stirling Limited — 2022

Mr Reid was employed by Hugh Stirling Limited from 1 September 2008 until 28 March 2022, when he resigned after giving four weeks' notice. He brought a constructive unfair dismissal complaint and claims relating to a Covid-era salary reduction, annual leave carried over from 2020, and an alleged bonus for work on the Whitbread account. The tribunal rejected a number of the asserted breaches, including the fuel card change, the company car policy change, complaints about promotion communication and recruitment decisions, and the proposed mileage-rate reduction in February 2022, finding those matters were contractual or business decisions and not material breaches.

The tribunal did, however, find two material breaches of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence. First, on 27 February 2021 Mr Nugent told Mr Muslek in confidence that he should sack the claimant or get him out of the business, and Mr Muslek then repeated that remark to the claimant. Second, the tribunal found that the respondent claimed furlough pay against the claimant's salary between November 2020 and March 2021 while he was working his full hours, and that this was contrary to the claimant's wishes. It accepted the claimant's account of the meeting in late October 2020 and considered the furlough references in the payslips unexplained by the respondent's evidence.

Those breaches did not, however, found constructive dismissal because the claimant continued working for a significant period afterwards. The tribunal held that he tacitly accepted both breaches by staying in employment, did not resign promptly in response to them, and raised neither issue in his written note of concerns sent on 22 December 2021. The proposed mileage-rate change communicated on 25 February 2022 was not a breach in itself and was not sufficiently close in nature or timing to amount to a last straw. The claim for constructive unfair dismissal therefore failed, and the tribunal did not need to go on to assess fairness or compensation.

On the payment claims, the tribunal held that the April-June 2020 salary reduction and the holiday claim were out of time as unlawful deduction complaints because ACAS Early Conciliation began only on 28 February 2022. The bonus claim was within time in principle, but it was not a sum properly payable because there was no contractual entitlement and no binding guarantee by Mr Muslek. The same three sums also failed as common law breach of contract claims for the same reasons. The tribunal noted that the claimant had obtained a new role from 29 March 2022 with higher pay and benefits and said he had fully mitigated any financial losses associated with his resignation.