Mrs M Tait v Represented by: Mr R Brown Solicitor Biggar Medical Practice — 2021

Mrs M Tait had worked as a Practice Nurse for Biggar Medical Practice since 2012 and, by agreement, had reduced her hours to three days a week. On 31 October 2019 she wrote asking to reduce to two days a week for her final year before planned retirement, so that she could spend more time helping to care for her mother. The respondent discussed the request at practice meetings on 7 November, 23 November and 5 December 2019, and decided it could not accommodate the change because its policy was to have two Practice Nurses on duty each working day and it was concerned about cover if one nurse was absent.

At the 10 December 2019 appraisal meeting, Dr Ross Stewart and Mr Donald Stewart told the claimant that the request was refused. The tribunal found that the claimant had made an informal request rather than a statutory flexible working application, and that the respondent had investigated possible alternatives, including asking the other nurses to increase their days, considering an extra nurse and looking at a trainee nurse scheme. The judge preferred Mr Stewart's evidence that he did not tell the claimant a formal application would make no difference.

The tribunal held that there had been no dismissal within section 95(1)(c) ERA 1996, so the constructive dismissal claim failed. It accepted that the respondent's handling did not always reflect best practice, including limited note-taking and not involving the claimant in further meetings, but held that this did not amount to a repudiatory breach or a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. The resignation letter of 4 February 2020 was treated as reflecting the claimant's wish to spend more time caring for her mother rather than acceptance of a fundamental breach, and her April 2020 approach offering to work again supported that conclusion.