A recruiter who resigned after refusing to accept a pay cut was awarded £17,000 for unfair constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal, reports People Management. The recruiter, named as C Decker, worked for Extra Personnel Logistics, a Liverpool-based recruitment agency, since 2008. Decker initially worked 40 hours a week but this was reduced to 32 in 2015. In February 2017, he was asked by the company’s managing director if he would reduce his working hours to 16, blaming the agency’s loss of two contracts and a quiet period in the wider industry. Under the proposed change, Decker would have lost £205 a week. Decker proposed that he would be willing to cut his hours to 24 if his day rate was increased from £102.97 to £110.00. The company then offered a different contract which Decker refused and he was handed his resignation in June 2017. The tribunal ruled “that a reduction of this magnitude was a serious matter for Decker” and that his employer “had fundamentally breached” his employment contract. It added the enforced reduction in Decker’s hours and the consequential loss in pay were the reasons he resigned.

“Imposing a significant cut in pay without an employee’s consent will amount to a fundamental breach of contract, even if the employer had good reason for wanting to do this” said Fiona Coombe, SIA Director of Legal and Regulatory Research. “In a case where an employee is not willing to agree to the change in their terms, the employer must follow a fair consultation process and if necessary proceed to a dismissal on notice with an offer to re-engage on the new terms”.