Constructive dismissal

Constructive dismissal occur when an employer breaches an employee’s contract. Employee has the right to leave the job and claim the employer’s action amount to the dismissal. However employee must provide an adequate proof, mere allegation are not sufficient. It needs to be deal like other claim of unfair dismissal under section 20 IR Act 1967.

CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL WAS INTRODUCED TO PROTECT EMPLOYEES FROM BEING MANUPULATED BY MANAGEMENT NEGATIVE STRATEGY IN EXPELLING THEIR EMPLOYEES

EXAMPLE: - Down grading.
- reduce the salary.
- transfer to unreasonable branch.
- Change to or assign an appropriate post.

For an employee to prove constructive dismissal, he must be able to show:

The employer breach a fundamental or major term of his employment contract.
The employee left his employment in direct response to that breach and
The employee left in a timely manner

Employee normally failed in claiming a constructive dismissal because of unable to prove the above issues.
Fundamental breach of employment contract contain both express ( wages , benefit, employees position , hierarchy, nature of work and working hours= where employers failed to meet this commitment / impose some change in these terms).

Implied terms on the other hand for example refer to employer need to maintain a climate of mutual trust and confidence between himself and his employees. If for example employer take some action to humiliate and embarrass his employee such as remove employee’s name and position from organization chart, disallow him from carrying normal job function hopefully the employee will nor be able to withstand the stress.

Tindakan ini membolehkan pekerja meninggalkan syarikatnya dan membuat tuntutan di bawah Sec. 20 I.R atau dia diberhentikan secara tak adil atau sebab-sebab yang munasabah. However employee first needs to make a formal complaint to the employer requesting that the problem be rectified, if no satisfactory rectification employee can walk of the job.