Constructive dismissal - is it worth taking?

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Maryb50

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My really good friend and former manager is thinking of taking a Constructive Dsmissal case through WRC. just talking about it earlier this evening. He works in healthcare, had a horrible time as manager, though the kind of stuff he went through is common enough. I think he's mad to take this case as I think these cases are published, and he might find it difficult to get work again. He is working again now but on about 15k less. Am I right about a Constructive Dismissal case? I think he should try and move on instead as it would be such an emotional strain also. Does anyone here know about Constructive Dismissal.
 
Constructive dismissal cases can be very difficult to win AND can take a very heavy personal toll, both healthwise and career wise, on the applicant win or lose.
Complaints about treatment at work will be judged on record keeping, management response, work performance etc. I would seek the opinion of a very experienced employment law specialist before going down the constructive dismissal route
 
Thanks for your reply Vanessa, in terms of impact on career - is it because, as I thought, that the details are published, and that is the impact on one's career. In my friend's case the management response was terrible, there was no investigation despite it being a formal process. There were no issues with his work performance, and he got a bonus of 5k a few months prior to this all blowing up - the bonus was for exceptional performance.
 
Public maybe, the real concern is companies operating black lists.
 
Was your friend left in a situation where they felt their only option was to quit their job? Have they taken contemporaneous notes on what happened at meetings between himself and management (Look at James Comey and his meetings with Trump)?

Taking an action against an employer is very stressful and all consuming. It is for your friend to prove that he was constructively dismissed, so he better have the evidence. He will also have to hire a good employment solicitor, who aren't cheap. He will also be going up against an employer who has deeper pockets than him who may even hire barristers to go up against him.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Are you sure you are talking about constructive dimissal (where an employee feels they have no choice but to resign) or something more like wrongful termination?
In wrongful termination the onus is usually on the employer to prove that they have followed all policies and procedures correctly.
 
Thanks all. it was a weird case. Basically his two managers shared a position. He got on great with one of them, who said his work was excellent, and put him forward for the bonus at Xmas, but other manager made life difficult for him from the start, constantly criticising him and gossiping about him to others, trying to take away his responsibilities, trying to reduce his hours - the fact that the other manager though he was an excellent employee, didn't seem to carry weight. He was also off sick for two months with stress from this manager's approach/attitude - HR delayed everything and didn't seem to want to deal with it at all - head in sand kind of approach, I suppose.
 
Sounds like constructive dismissal.

If above scenario is correct, then he may be doing others a favour.

Before any case gets to a wrc hearing there is the option of arbitration.

But the person taking the case has to show that there was no other option and leaving the position was the only realistic option.

Compensation is usually up to 2 years of the net lost earnings (after tax).

Currently cases take 12-18 months before a hearing is scheduled.
 
It may or may not be constructive dismissal but needs to walk away from this. Much would depend on the whim of the person hearing the case on the day. WRC will also factor in that he is now in employment (albeit lower salary) when considering any award.
The past is the past. A case like this will eat him up for months and the fact that he had been out with stress shows he is not going to be able to handle this. He could easily end up out sick again from his current job.
He would be much better to concentrate on his current job and work towards getting a position with higher salary again. And he should ensure he is not bad mouthing previous employer to his current work colleagues.
 
Thanks JoeRoberts for your advice/comment. I feel it will eat him up. Although, there was completely no justification for it, he is afraid that they will try and ruin his reputation for other jobs going forward. I think he feels that he will be somehow vindicated by a constructive dismissal case, but as you say, it would depend on who was hearing the case on the day - he was treated really badly, as I work there under him myself, so can't reveal too much more, but have a question of my own in another post about this.
 
My friend/ex work colleague has now decided to go ahead with a constructive dismissal case. The investigation into his grievance was farcical. The investigator, external - but my friend thinks he is a good friend of the HR Manager - didn't interview the witnesses for my friend, nor did he examine any of the abusive emails from one of the managers to my friend - there were about 80 of these emails. There were also emails from my friend notifying the manager that some things were not correct, and asking him to help him sort out the errors - administrative and financial errors, with the manager never getting back to him, or getting back to him several weeks later. I have seen the emails my friend/ex colleague has. They totally corroborate his story - how can an investigator get away with not looking at these given that they were also mentioned in the terms of reference. My friend is appealing the outcome of the report with his former employers, who are still my employers. He had an HR 'Expert' - I not overly fond of the term 'expert,' look at the report, the evidence he had etc, and she is dumbfounded, and feels that it was completely and fundamentally flawed. This is now fuelling his desire further to go ahead with a constructive dismissal case. I'm a bit shocked - do employers actually get away with this sort of thing in this day and age? Can they get away with it? After what my friend/colleague has been through with the organisation, and seeing how he has been treated, and what has happened now, I am slowly looking for another position also. Advice/comments would be welcome.
 
My ex colleague/manager is here with me today, and is going to an appeal of a grievance investigation next Friday where the investigator did not examine any available evidence despite there being lots of it. He has lots of email evidence of his side of the story - client/patient detail has been redacted, but the emails are addressed to his previous manager - can he bring this to the appeal of the grievance investigation? Otherwise he has no way of corroborating his story - there are only two others who witnessed the issues briefly. How does Data Protection relate to this. I was going through the Data Protection Acts with him, but none the wiser. His solicitor doesn't seem clear on it either. Any advice would be very welcome.
 
Maryb50 said:
My ex colleague/manager is here with me today, and is going to an appeal of a grievance investigation next Friday where the investigator did not examine any available evidence despite there being lots of it. He has lots of email evidence of his side of the story - client/patient detail has been redacted, but the emails are addressed to his previous manager - can he bring this to the appeal of the grievance investigation? Otherwise he has no way of corroborating his story - there are only two others who witnessed the issues briefly. How does Data Protection relate to this. I was going through the Data Protection Acts with him, but none the wiser. His solicitor doesn't seem clear on it either. Any advice would be very welcome.
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A recurring trend in all of your threads (and in the advice you get on all of them too), is inadequate professional advice and/or the need to get adequate professional advice. It's a bit bizarre that this doesn't seem to have sunk in for you, in light of your other current threads.

If the guy's solicitor doesn't / can't / won't answer the relevant questions then he needs a new solicitor, that's obvious.
 
I don't have much faith in solicitors, not even my own! It can seem like the law is totally for you one day, and the next it spits you out - 'wicky' my mother used to call it. I think a lot of general solicitors probably don't know about data protection stuff - it's quite specialist - but he doesn't have the money for a specialist data protection solicitor, which seem to be mostly in the larger Dublin companies - just from looking at websites with him today. I felt redacting the client details would be enough - but who am I to say!
 
Maryb50 said:
I don't have much faith in solicitors, not even my own! It can seem like the law is totally for you one day, and the next it spits you out - 'wicky' my mother used to call it. I think a lot of general solicitors probably don't know about data protection stuff - it's quite specialist - but he doesn't have the money for a specialist data protection solicitor, which seem to be mostly in the larger Dublin companies - just from looking at websites with him today. I felt redacting the client details would be enough - but who am I to say!
Click to expand...

I am no expert but I'd think the data protection issue here is more so how he still has emails which are the property of his former employer.

Should they already be redacted if he has taken personal custody of them to use as evidence? Did he breach his employers data protection policy, itself potentially a serious disciplinary offence, by retaining them?
 
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