Chapter 6
Does it matter whether the employer intended to breach the contract?
[ch 6: page 66]No. An employer cannot escape liability for constructive dismissal by claiming that they did not mean to fundamentally breach the contract, as the following case shows:
School governors halved Mr Roberts’ sick pay because of an honest mistake about the meaning of a collectively negotiated term regulating sick pay. The EAT ruled that pay is a core term. The fact that the school made an honest mistake did not stop the non-payment of contractual sick pay being a fundamental breach of contract entitling Roberts to resign and claim constructive dismissal.
Roberts v The Governing Body of Whitecross School [2012] UKEAT/0070/12