Constructive dismissal

In employment law, constructive dismissal, also called constructive discharge or constructive termination, occurs when an employee resigns as a result of the employer creating a hostile work environment. Since the resignation was not truly voluntary, it is, in effect, a termination. For example, when an employer places extraordinary and unreasonable work demands on an employee to obtain their resignation, this can constitute a constructive dismissal.

The exact legal consequences differ between different countries, but generally a constructive dismissal leads to the employee's obligations ending and the employee acquiring the right to make claims against the employer.

The employee may resign over a single serious incident or over a pattern of incidents. Generally, a party seeking relief must have resigned soon after an unreasonable situation was imposed.

(FMLA)

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

(EPA)

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Change in schedules in order to force employee to quit (title 12)

(ADA)

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

(GINA)

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

(ADEA)

Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

(Title VII)

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Any state employment law

An employer showing favoritism to another employee without reason or explanation

In the United States, constructive discharge is a general term describing the involuntary resignation of an employee.^[1] There is no single federal or state law against constructive dismissal in general. From a legal standpoint, it occurs when an employee is forced to resign because of intolerable working conditions which violate employment legislation, such as:^[2]

The burden of proof in constructive dismissal cases lies with the employee.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has provided a 3-part test to determine whether or not a constructive discharge has occurred: (1) a reasonable person in the complainant's position would have found the working conditions intolerable; (2) conduct that constituted discrimination against the complainant created the intolerable working conditions; and (3) the complainant's involuntary resignation resulted from the intolerable working conditions.^[3]

In California, the California Supreme Court defines constructive discharge as follows:

"In order to establish a constructive discharge, an employee must plead and prove, by the usual preponderance of the evidence standard, that the employer either intentionally created or knowingly permitted working conditions that were so intolerable or aggravated at the time of the employee's resignation that a reasonable employer would realize that a reasonable person in the employee's position would be compelled to resign."^[4]