A recruiter who brought a claim for unfair constructive dismissal after resigning when asked to accept a pay cut has won £17,000 at an employment tribunal. The award was uplifted by 10 per cent for the employer’s breach of the ACAS code.

The claimant was employed by a driver recruitment agency specialising in the logistics industry based on Merseyside from 2008 until his resignation in 2017. He initially worked 40 hours a week but this was reduced to 32 hours per week in 2015. In February 2017, the claimant was approached by the managing director and asked to reduce his weekly working hours from 32 to 16, blaming the loss of two contacts and a general quietness in the industry.

The claimant responded that he was unable to afford any further reduction in hours but did put forward a proposal by which he worked fewer hours but at a slightly higher hourly rate, increasing his day rate from £102.97 to £110.00. The respondent enquired which three days per week the claimant would like to work, to which the claimant stated he wished to work Monday to Wednesday at the new day rate and a new 90 day notice period. The respondent led the claimant to believe that this was agreed, instead however a week later the claimant was sent a new contract which did not contain any of the three agreed elements.

On 1 June 2017 the respondent told the claimant that the business was not able to afford a pay rise and that a new contract had been proposed. The claimant responded by email that same evening to say that he had not agreed to another contract and believed the pay rise was not unreasonable given his eight years at the company.

The judgment stated that after this exchange, the claimant “no longer felt valued as an employee” and that “he was being forced out...for asking for an additional £0.88 per hour”.

The claimant handed in his resignation on 5 June 2017.

The employment tribunal found that the respondent had fundamentally breached the contract of employment, and that the conduct of the respondent had caused the claimant to resign. The Tribunal accordingly concluded that the essential elements of an unfair constructive dismissal had been made out by the claimant and that the respondent had failed to show that it had a fair reason to dismiss the claimant.

The employment tribunal agreed with the claimant that the email of 1 June 2017 was capable of satisfying the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures definition of a grievance and that the respondent’s response to it fell short of the requirements on it. A formal meeting should have been held without unreasonable delay rather than suggesting an informal discussion after making it clear that the new contract would be imposed, without addressing any of the claimant’s concerns.

The employment tribunal sitting at Liverpool Civil and Family Court awarded the claimant £16,852.12 for unfair constructive dismissal comprising a basic award of £4,942.92 for his eight years of continuous employment and a compensatory award of £11,882.20, uplifted by 10 per cent for the employer’s breach of the ACAS code.

Mr C Decker v Extra Personnel Logistics Ltd: 24207982017