RECEPTEK v Pearce (Contract of Employment : Implied Term/Variation/Construction of Term)

Employment Judge Sneath, sitting alone at Hull, found that the Claimant had been unfairly and constructively dismissed.� He gave Reasons for that Decision, which were promulgated on 3 December 2013.�

The Claimant was an Operations Manager, who was one of five employees in a small undertaking, of which the proprietor was a Mr Glass.� He resigned from that employment on 17 August 2011.�

The central dispute between the parties at the Tribunal was whether the facts were such that the Respondent employer had been in breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence towards Mr Pearce such that he could count himself dismissed within section 95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and claim compensation on the basis that that dismissal was unfair.

Mrs King made complaints to him in August about losing orders, which she attributed to the Claimant, and for that and other reasons, unspecified, there was what the Claimant thought of as a hostile and unpleasant environment.� The Tribunal said at paragraph 20:

�The Claimant was unhappy and Mr Glass was aware of it. �He called a short meeting with the Claimant two days later on 12 August.� He told him that there had been comments from other staff members about losing business and of their awareness that the Claimant intended to retire early.� This was clearly a reference to what Mrs King had said to the Claimant on 10 August.�