The Verdict - January 2025

• Ignoring an employee's greeting can undermine trust, rules tribunal

Ignoring an employee's greeting can undermine trust, rules tribunal

Ignoring an employee's greeting may seem trivial, but an Employment Tribunal recently ruled that it contributed to an instance of constructive dismissal.

The case

A manager transferred to a new company when it acquired the recruitment business she worked for.

Soon after, the managing director met the manager and the 2 others who worked in the office. The manager said she sometimes worked from home. One of the 2 colleagues said this put them under pressure, as the only 2 people in the office.

The director left the meeting feeling that the manager “did very little work and left her two colleagues to do it”.

A few days later, the manager arrived late to work due to a medical appointment, which the director was unaware of. She greeted him 3 times but was ignored.

He called her into a meeting room where she tried to show him her phone with evidence of her appointment. However, he pushed it away and told her “I suggest if you don't want to be here that you leave”. She replied, “After 20 years of working for the company, the only way I will be leaving is if you make me redundant.”

The director then gave pay rises to the manager's 2 direct reports, without discussing it with her first. He claimed he did so because he:

• had to act quickly after discovering they both had other job prospects and might resign; and
• believed she was no longer engaged with the business.

Feeling undervalued, the manager resigned and made a tribunal claim for constructive unfair dismissal.

Constructive dismissal for breach of trust and confidence

If an employee is forced to resign because they think their employer's conduct seriously breaches their employment contract, they can make a claim of constructive dismissal.

It's an implied term of an employment contract that the employer won't, without reasonable cause, behave in a way calculated or likely to destroy or seriously damage the trust and confidence between them.

Individual actions by an employer that aren't, on their own, a serious breach of contract may have the cumulative effect of undermining this term of trust and confidence. This can then entitle an employee to resign and claim constructive dismissal.

The tribunal

The tribunal upheld the manager's claim. It ruled that the director's behaviour cumulatively amounted to a serious breach of the implied term of trust and confidence.

It found that deliberately ignoring her when she arrived for work, despite her greeting him 3 times, was conduct that's calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence. He had no reasonable reason for doing this, or for:

• refusing to look at her phone or listen to her explanation about the medical appointment; or
• telling her that she should leave.

He did so because he assumed she wasn't pulling her weight, despite not having any proper discussion with her about what work she did, where and when.

The tribunal also disputed that he didn't discuss the pay rises with her because he felt she wasn't engaged with the business. Instead, he did so because he'd already decided that she no longer had a future at the business due to her comment about redundancy.

What this means for you

This case is a reminder that you have an implied duty to maintain the relationship of trust and confidence between employer and employee.

You should make sure that managers don't make assumptions about employees that affect how they treat them.

Even seemingly insignificant behaviour, such as ignoring a greeting, without reasonable and proper cause, can build up to seriously damage this trust and confidence.

If this happens and your employee resigns because of it, you may face constructive dismissal claims.

* This bulletin is for general purposes and guidance only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Its contents should not be relied or acted upon without specific advice from a licensed legal practitioner.