Thanks for posting that - interesting.
The reference to a breach of "trust and confidence" in Curbishley's statement is deliberate as that is a term implied by common law into all employment contracts regardless of what's in the written agreement. My view, which I think I posted previously, was that simply selling a player behind a managers back wouldn't be enough to breach this term - most of the cases I remember concern things like humiliating an employee in public (sound familiar Paolo?
), harassment, unwarranted demotion etc. If a Director/Owner of a company wants to dispense with the services of an employee and does so without consulting their immediate line manager first then its a poor way to run a business, but ultimately tough shit.
I'd still stand by that, although perhaps with slightly less conviction if that was the basis for Curbishley's successful claim. In his case though it appears that it happened on a number of occasions, and the latter time despite an express assurance to the contrary. That extra element might have been the factor that convinced the ET that the breach was so fundamental as to go to the root of the contract. Paolo's situation appears quite far removed from that, as is well summed up in dalumpimunki's post above, although of course we don't know the full facts.
There also remains the possibility that there could have been a specific written term which has been breached although again, as already mentioned, it would have to be one that went to the root of the contract to amount to constructive dismissal.
And regardless, I'm still not sure I buy this as a reason for being under embargo. Very harsh if it is.
