Constructive dismissal

In Bedford v Pilgrims Group Ltd [EAT/0106/10], the EAT held that an employer’s failure to pay an employee for their outstanding holidays was not a fundamental breach of their contract of employment. Therefore, the employee could not claim that they had been constructively dismissed.

The EAT acknowledged that an employer’s failure to pay wages (including holiday pay) to an employee does not automatically amount to a fundamental breach of their contract of employment: Cantor Fitzgerald International v Callaghan [1999] EWCA Civ 623.