Constructive Discharge Case Study

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A. Constructive Discharge

Constructive discharge, or constructive dismissal, means that the employee resigned from their position as a result of the employer creating an intolerable and difficult environment. Constructive discharge is viewed as the employee being pressured to quit due to the employer making changes to the working conditions or responsibilities, but from a legal position, the employee quit due to forced termination, or fired without good cause. ("TimsLaw.com » Constructive Discharge - Being forced to quit - Tim 's Missouri Employment Law Info Site," n.d.)
At the beginning of the year, a work schedule policy change was made to increase production hours as a result of company growth. The previous Monday through Friday work schedule …show more content…

First is because the policy change was made due to the growth in our company and the need to increase production. By not making this change our company would begin to suffer due to lack of supply to meet the market demands forcing an unnecessary hardship on the company. Second is a result from the “reasonable person test”. “An employee who resigns after being subjected to unlawful discrimination is said to have been constructively discharged if a reasonable person would have found the discriminatory conditions to be intolerable.” (Finnegan, 2001, p. 562) Finally, the employee must provide definitive proof of their religious beliefs and conclude with irrefutable evidence proving the working conditions were intolerable and that the employer created the conditions, targeting the employee into …show more content…

Dubuque Packing Co. (1982) Reasonable actions from employee would have been to take immediate steps, short of resignation, to work with management in order to address the intolerable working condition in an effort to make them more tolerable. Due to the fact that the former employee quit immediately after the new policy change was put into effect, shows that no actions were taken to resolve the intolerable working conditions.
In the case of a reasonable person test, “a reasonable person in [the employee 's] position would have felt that he was forced to quit because of intolerable and discriminatory working conditions.” The evidence was inconclusive due to Thomas’ “subjective personal discomfort, however, was most likely not the product of any action by appellees but, rather, the product of human nature.” Thomas v. Douglas

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