Description
Constructive termination, forced resignation – labour laws have been domesticated – keyboard mistake – mere slip of the pen – working relationship had become so unbearable – Objective test – Subjective test – duty to prove the objectivity of the intolerability – exhaust all available means of dispute resolution.
- Constructive termination, forced resignation
- Tanzanian labour laws have been heavily imported from South Africa (p.16).
- South African decisions based on their labour laws have been domesticated through the decisions of the High Court (p. 16).
- Three requirements for constructive termination to be established.
- The Court of Appeal followed the decisions of South African courts and the High Court of Tanzania on constructive termination (p. 20).
- Questions to be answered in order to ascertain existence of constructive termination (pp. 20 – 21).
- Slight variations in the employee’s names – mere keyboard mistake and mere slip of the pen (p. 23).
- Whether the working relationship had become so unbearable – the test is objective rather than subjective (p. 24).
- The duty to prove the objectivity of the intolerability rests on the employee (p. 24).
- The Court found that the employee had failed to prove that the working conditions had become intolerable. The working conditions could not have become unbearable just all of a sudden. It should have been a process that would take a period of time (pp. 25 – 26).
- In order for constructive termination to exist, the employee’s act to resign must be one of last resort. An employee must exhaust all available means of dispute resolution at the place of work (pp. 26 – 27 and 28 to 29).
- Before the employee’s resignation, the employer had proposed to discuss the problem with the employee but the employee did not wait for discussion. It was found that the employee resigned in a rush hence no constructive termination (p. 26 – 28).
- The employee’s letter of resignation did not disclose reasons for such resignation or that the resignation related to constructive termination – it was held that constructive termination, cannot stand (p. 30).
- The claim of constructive termination failed because the employee’s act of resignation was not one of last resort, he did not prove any condition that made the employment unbearable, he did not exhaust the dispute resolution mechanism at his disposal, his resignation was out of the blue, and did not disclose the reason for taking that course. The employer was ready to discuss the matter with the employee but the latter did not give the former the opportunity to remedy the situation. The resignation was thus tendered while there was still room for solving the problem without resignation (p. 30).
