This week,
Dimitri Seluk (agent to Manchester City star Yaya Toure) stated that the player
might leave Manchester City because the club's owners showed him a lack of
respect on his 31st birthday, apparently ignoring him when the squad arrived in
the United Arab Emirates to celebrate their Premier League title triumph.
Does this
mean that employers might have a potential constructive unfair dismissal claim
hanging over their heads if they fail to wish an employee happy birthday? In
short, the answer is no.
An employee
is constructively dismissed where an employer commits a repudiatory breach of
contract (i.e. a significant breach going to the root of the contract of
employment) and the employee resigns within a reasonable time in response to
that breach. In this case, failure to wish an employee happy birthday (unless
it is part of a wider campaign of harassment or bullying) would not be
considered a repudiatory breach of contract entitling the employee to resign
and claim constructive dismissal.
Commentators
have suggested that Toure’s expression of disappointment with the club’s owners
was merely a tactic aimed at increasing his earnings after a hugely successful
season.
William Bishop