Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Employment lawCase lawConstructive dismissalDismissalUnfair dismissal

Case of the week: Employer’s reasonable response makes a difference

by Kate Hodgkiss 15 Oct 2008
by Kate Hodgkiss 15 Oct 2008

Claridge v Daler Rowney Ltd

FACTS Mr B J Claridge was employed by art supply company Daler Rowney as a team leader. He had worked for the company for more 34 years and had an unblemished service record. He resigned from the company in August 2007. The events leading up to Claridge’s resignation started with an incident one Friday in 2006 when the production manager saw him leaving his post on the production line on more than one occasion. On the following Monday the production manager held a meeting with Claridge to discuss the incident. The production manager told him he had to “buck up his ideas” and that if he did not do so he might be demoted.

Following this, Claridge took a period of sick leave. His absence caused the company particular difficulty as another supervisor in the same department was already on sick leave, so the company appointed an internal person to cover Claridge’s absence. He continued to be receive his salary as a team leader while off sick.

That same month, Claridge issued three grievances, all claiming that he had been demoted. The company offered him a meeting to discuss his grievance, but, due to requests from his adviser and his continued ill-health, the meeting did not take place until February 2007.

At the grievance meeting, Claridge was told he had not been demoted and that the person currently doing his role was simply covering his absence. After some delay, the company then wrote to Claridge informing him that his grievance had not been upheld because he had not been demoted. In response to this, Claridge resigned. He then issued an employment tribunal claim alleging that he had been constructively dismissed on the basis that his grievance had not been dealt with properly or within a reasonable time-frame.

DECISION The employment tribunal rejected Claridge’s complaint. Although it had some criticism of the company’s handling of the grievance, it considered that it was bound by an earlier decision, Abbey National plc v Fairbrother. This case held that it was necessary to ask whether an employer’s conduct in relation to the grievance procedure was within the band of reasonable responses open to it in relation to the grievance presented by the employee. The tribunal said that, in relation to Claridge’s complaint and the relevant circumstances, it found that any reasonable employer would have conducted the grievance in the way that the company had. Therefore, Claridge had not been constructively dismissed.

The case then went before to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which upheld the decision of the original tribunal. It said that, although there was some criticism of the company’s handling of the grievance, it was reasonable to find that the company’s actions fell within the band of reasonable responses.

IMPLICATIONS By following the earlier case of Fairbrother this case has continued a line of authority that gives employers some latitude in handling grievance procedures. The way in which a grievance is handled will not be deemed to destroy the relationship of trust and confidence between an employer and its employee – and thereby give grounds for a complaint of constructive dismissal, unless it is outside the band of reasonable responses open to the employer.

Kate Hodgkiss, partner, DLA Piper

Avatar
Kate Hodgkiss

Kate Hodgkiss is a partner at DLA Piper.

previous post
Jobs crisis will lead to ‘woeful winter’ in the UK
next post
Police Federation insists three-year pay deal is ‘very good’

You may also like

Christian doctor loses transgender pronoun case, but beliefs...

29 Jun 2022

Long Covid: what tribunal’s disability ruling means for...

23 Jun 2022

Whistleblowing nurse awarded £462k for unfair dismissal

15 Jun 2022

Oxford study highlights best gig economy firms to...

9 Jun 2022

Tesco appeal against fire and rehire ban to...

8 Jun 2022

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

5 Jun 2022

Frewer v Google: How it’s getting harder to...

30 May 2022

P&O Ferries boss denies reputational damage after mass...

27 May 2022

Employers lack data to make IR35 worker status...

25 May 2022

Maternity leave: Cost of living crisis highlights need...

25 May 2022
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+