Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

An employee

A Petrol Station

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977

CA-00010732-001

10/04/2017

The complainant contends that she was unfairly dismissed from her job by way of constructive dismissal, following a number of incidents with management where she suffered bullying, harassment and false allegations.

The complainant was employed at her workplace from 22 October 2007 to 11th November 2016 when she went on sick leave due to work related stress. Up until the new owner took over in July 2016, she had no problems at work. From the time of the ownership change, until she was forced to take sick leave she was accused of being incompetent and was intimidated and bullied. The complainant recounted incidents in October and November 2016 when various accusations were levelled at her from management and she could no longer tolerate the situation.

The respondent contends that the complainant was not constructively dismissed or dismissed.     She did not give notice to terminate her employment. She did not make any attempt to resolve her issues or make the employer aware of them.   The complainant was spoken to on a number of occasions regarding cash handling and minor till mistakes.   However all employees would be communicated with on an ongoing basis in relation to working standards. It is agreed that there was an incident relating to misidentification of a customer and the owner did call the complainant to ask her what occurred. The complainant went on sick leave after that and did not return to work and failed to respond to a letter seeking details of her grievances. The respondent employer has not received a letter of resignation or complaint at any time. The respondent recently received a social welfare form stating that she was on sick leave.

The definition of constructive dismissal as provided for in the Act is:

“The termination by an employee of his contract of employment with his employer, whether prior notice of the termination was or was not given to the employer, in circumstances in which, because of the conduct of the employer, the employee was or would have been entitled, or it was or would have been reasonable for the employee to terminate the contract of employment without giving prior notice of the termination to the employer”.

I note from the evidence that the complainant went on sick leave on 11th November 2016.   She did not terminate her contract with or without notice and therefore her complaint is misconceived under the Acts. I do not uphold her complaint.