Bliss v SE Thames Health Authority, [1985] IRLR 308
Citation:Bliss v SE Thames Health Authority, [1985] IRLR 308
Rule of thumb 1: What is constructive dismissal of an employee? It occurs when an employee is asked to do a completely unreasonable task such that the relationship of trust & confidence is destroyed.
Rule of thumb 2: Is asking an employee to undergo a psychiatric examination constructive dismissal? If there are no circumstances to justify, then, yes, that can be the equivalent of a constructive dismissal.
Judgment:
Where an employee is given illegitimate and unfair instructions to follow then this can deemed to be a constructive dismissal and entitles them to damages for unfair dismissal, ‘There must be some breaches at least of such an implied term which are fundamental and repudiatory and go to the root of the contract, and if ever there was a breach of such a term going to the root of the contract, it was this. It would be difficult in this particular area of employment law to think of anything more calculated or likely to destroy the relationship of confidence and trust which ought to exist between employer and employee than, without reasonable cause, to require a consultant surgeon to undergo a medical, which was correctly understood to mean a psychiatric examination, and to suspend him from the hospital on his refusing to do so’, Dillon LJ
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.