ERA rejects PG claim after employee resigns after disagreement with colleague…

An employee has resigned after having a verbal altercation with one of her colleagues. The two workers had a long history of disagreements and were unable to see eye to eye on many work related issues.

The Employment Relations Authority rejected the employee’s personal grievance claim for constructive dismissal.

The ERA held that the employer had acted as a fair and reasonable employer could in all of the circumstances by promptly meeting with the two employees to try and improve their working relationship.

The ERA noted that while the employee had complaints about her colleague, he equally had complaints about her.

The employer provisionally agreed that the two staff members could no longer work together and offered the employee the option of moving to another office. The employee had immediately rejected this offer.

The ERA held that the employer’s conduct did not have the dominant purpose of effecting a resignation. Instead, the employer had done everything it could to retain the employee’s services.