Harassment in workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Harassment in workplace - Essay Example An employee with a minimum of one-year of continuous service can make a claim for an unfair or wrongful dismissal. An employee with less than one-year service can make a claim under common law provisions only. It is to be observed that the wrongful dismissal covers only the compensation of employee’s pay for the notice period. (â€Å"Thavarajah 2008: 57†). In constructive dismissal, there will not any dismissal from the employer. Actually, in such cases, the employee is driven out of his employment due to the scenario at his workplace. (â€Å"Thavarajah 2008: 11†). In Bouzourou v The Ottoman Bank1, Privy Council was of the opinion that an employee to consider himself as being terminated , if his transfer to another place made him vulnerable to disease or expose him to an aggressive peril of violence . (Thavarajah 2008: 10). In Wang Chee Hong v Cathay Organisation, it was held that in case of a transfer, which pushed back the plaintiff to a place of fewer responsi bilities though with the analogues’ conditions where the plaintiff refused to accept that transfer is nothing but a dismissal. Thus, such relegation of accountability with its outcome of frustration and humiliation and loss of reputation among colleagues made it not possible for the plaintiff to continue the service in the organisation and hence, it should be regarded as dismissal. The identical views were also expressed in JF Bumpus v Standard Life Assurance Co Ltd2, Cox v Philips Industries3. (Thavarajah 2008: 11). The constructive unfair dismissal has been explained in Western Excavating (EEC) V Sharp4, where it would be regarded as unfair constructive dismissal if an employer is culpable of infringement, which goes to the very root of the contract or if he had shown an inclination no longer to be accountable by it. In such scenarios, the employee is empowered to consider the contract as ceased and himself being dismissed. In United Bank v Akhtar5, it was held that in a ba nk employee’s service contract stated that he could be transferred to any of its bank branches within the UK, and the employee turned down to move to Birmingham from Leeds branch at a shorter notice and hence resigned from the job and later, she claimed the constructive unfair dismissal. It was held by EAT in this case that the employee had been constructively dismissed, and his demeanour did not warrant that dismissal. (Scrope & Barnett 2008: 211). In Cape Industrial Services Ltd v Ambler6, when considering whether there has been an unfair constructive dismissal, the Court of Appeal was of the view that the following had to be taken into consideration. What were the significant conditions of the contract seemed to be infringed? Whether the details of the breaches have been made out. Whether breaches are fundamental in nature. If so, whether an employee has been driven to resign due to such a breach. Whether the employer has demonstrated any probable fair grounds for the cons tructive dismissals. Whether, in such scenario, the employer has acted unreasonably or reasonably in treating the grounds as an adequate one warranting dismissal. (Scrope & Barnett 2008:211). In Green v DB Group Services (UK) Ltd7, HC, compensation for stress oriented injury can be very liberal and in this case, a bank was held vicariously accountable for a continuous campaign of harassment and bullying witnessed by a female secretary who was awarded damages in excess of ?850,000. (Scrope & Barnet