Constructive dismissal: the contractual maze

The scheme of statutory protection in the United Kingdom established by the law of unfair dismissal in the Industrial Relations Act 1971 (UK) is sensitive to the need to accommodate the realities of the different ways in which a working relationship might come to an end. Since 1974, the view has rightfully been taken that it was not enough to regulate situations involving dismissals as generally understood where the decision to terminate is one taken and communicated by the employer. Parliament recognised that the employer’s behaviour might trigger severance of the relationship at the hands of the employee. Employees may, in response to an intolerable state of affairs, simply resign and have no intention of returning. The common law would not regard this as constituting a dismissal but it was, nevertheless, important that the employer’s behaviour still be subject to scrutiny and that the employee be furnished with a remedy should their complaint be upheld.