The EAT has confirmed that a claim that an employee's constructive dismissal was discriminatory will be in time if brought within three months of the termination, even if the events that rendered the dismissal discriminatory took place more than three months earlier (and therefore as individual claims would themselves be out of time). The 'last straw' event which prompts the claimant's resignation does not need to be discriminatory. The EAT noted that it will be a matter of degree whether discriminatory factors contributing to the constructive dismissal sufficiently influenced the overall repudiatory breach such as to render the dismissal discriminatory.
Employers should therefore be aware of the potential for a discriminatory constructive dismissal claim based in part on historic acts of discrimination several months or even years earlier.
(De Lacey v Wechseln t/a The Andrew Hill Salon)
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