Last straw cases




The breach of contract that leads an employee to resign can be either one act if sufficiently serious, or a series of actions which together amount to a breach. These are often referred to as “last straw” cases. They are common in situations involving bullying, harassment or discrimination. It does not matter if no single incident amounts to a serious breach as long as taken together, they destroy the contractual relationship. However, reasonable employer behaviour is unlikely to be regarded as a “last straw” justifying resignation regardless of what came before (London Borough of Waltham Forest v Omilaju [2005] IRLR 35), so any employee contemplating resignation should ensure that any eventual resignation is linked to an incident that is unarguably unreasonable.