Thread: pressure to quit work..??

My boyfriend has been working for a year and a half at a well known company. He has been trying for over 6 months to get on a permanent shift as he is my main carer. The company have been messing him around all this time and he recently had to take some time off while I was in hospital. Obviously, his employer didnt like this but they seemed to be 'fairly' understanding about it and were in the process (apparently) of sorting out the permanent shift he needed.

Now, he hasnt had a perfect work record but this particular company have been in the news quite recently about sacking employees......

Well, he went into work today....a meeting with a manager had been arranged. My boyfriend had no notice of this. He went to see his union rep who told him what it was about. The union rep then advised him that he was going to get the sack and his best option would be to quit before that happened. My b/f had an unofficial chat with the manager who basically told him the same thing so, he resigned.

I feel that he was under duress to resign and wasnt given enough notice about this meeting. I also feel that the union rep didn't represent my b/f fairly. I've been reading about constructive dismissal and resignation while under pressure from an employer. Do you think we could have a case for that?

I dont know about any warnings my b/f had previously (we'll be getting all the details of that tomorrow) but is there anything we can do in the mean time? Anyone got any advice? Thanks in advance.

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thank you so much for the links and advise...we'll see what we can do!

I sorry your Husband was given such bad advice from his Union Rep.

The law states that Employers must follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure (DDP) at the very minimum when dismissing an employee or taking relevant disciplinary action for the procedure to be fair. The DDP is a 3 step procedure which is as follows:-

1: Letter from the employer to the employee setting out the circumstances which have led them to consider dismissal or disciplinary action. The letter should also invite the employee to a disciplinary meeting and the employee should be provided with sufficient time to prepare for it.

2: Disciplinary meeting. Employee should be notified of decision post meeting and advised of their right to appeal( 5 working days from the date of letter dismissing him )

3:Appeal. Employer should appoint a more senior manager to represent them at the appeal.
Should the employer fail to follow the DDP and proceed to dismiss the employee, the dismissal would amount to automatic unfair dismissal and the employee would be entitled to claim up to 50% uplift in compensation on what they would otherwise expect to receive at tribunal. When gauging procedural fairness, the following applies:-

DDP not followed = automatic unfair dismissal



DDP followed but employer failed to follow own disciplinary procedure or other pertinent procedure = dismissal not unfair should the employee have ultimate been dismissed had the other procedure been followed.


Because of this and the fact you state your husband had no know age of the meeting, the rep should of had the meeting cancelled or go ahead with it and then place an appeal on the grounds that the DDP was not followed.


My advice is to now speak to his union’s main office, telling them he resigned on the advice of his rep and ask them to take this matter up.


The trouble is, by resigning he has lost his rights to take the matter before a tribunal as to bring a case of Constructive Dismissal, he must of followed the DDP and companies appeal process to the full and having no change he then feels compelled to resign.

This he has not done because he resigned before the first meeting.My advice to anyone is to always follow the DDP to the full, this way your rights are protected under law and gives you the option to being a case before a tribunal.