City and Islington lecturer awarded £44k for constructive dismissal

City and Islington College teaches BTEC and foundation courses to students in business, arts and technology

An lecturer who left his job after complaining about flooding was awarded more than £44,000 in compensation.

Kevin Hope won a complaint of constructive dismissal against the Capital City College Group.

The group runs further colleges, including City and Islington College, which provide courses to students in business, arts and technology.

A tribunal found repeated flooding and a dispute with a lab technician led to Mr Hope's resignation.

The lecturer, who was described as "a sculptor of some standing", was employed as a 3D lecturer in art and design and used a workshop called G27.

An employment tribunal, held in Watford, heard G27 suffered serious and frequent flooding.

Water contaminated the electrical fittings and pooled around high voltage heavy-duty tools and equipment.

Constructive dismissal

Constructive dismissal is when somebody is forced to leave a job against their will because of the employer's conduct.

It may be one serious incident or a series of incidents that are serious when taken together.

Workers with a case for constructive dismissal should leave the job immediately as employers may argue that, by staying, the conduct or treatment was accepted.

Source: Gov.UK

From about July 2017, Mr Hope reported various problems including emailing a technician about a lack of resources and personal protective equipment (PPE) over the previous years.

Representations were also made to that technician's manager to intervene.

A workshop allocated to Mr Hope would frequently flood, the tribunal heard

On 1 September 2020, Mr Hope had a face-to-face discussion with the technician about these failures.

A few days later he was told the technician had raised a formal grievance against him.

In turn, Mr Hope raised a formal grievance against the technician in October 2020 and in April 2021 he lodged a second.

He said that flooding in August 2021 was the last straw and he resigned.

The tribunal found both the flooding and the relationship with the technician were each an effective cause of his resignation.

The judgement continued: "It follows that the grievance failure, being so concerned with these, was an effective cause of his resignation.

"Having found above that the grievance failure was a repudiatory breach and an effective cause of his resignation, it follows that the claimant has established that he was constructively dismissed."

A case of unfair dismissal was rejected.

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