Tag Archive for: News

Covid-19 Weekly Update – 05.04.20

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Well it certainly has been an interesting week and a half as we all get used to working and living differently during the Covid-19 lockdown.

It seems that every day the government is providing more clarification as to things we can do day-to-day and, most importantly for you, how you can use the wage subsidy. There have been many conflicting pieces of advice from employment lawyers and employment relations businesses. As we have digested these varying pieces of interpretation we have taken a ‘use it responsibly and fairly’ attitude.

On Friday Minister Grant Robertson clarified that if a wage subsidy received for a part time employee is more than they would usually get paid then the balance can be used towards paying other employees. The key thing is it MUST be used to pay staff wages.

Wage Subsidy for Sole Traders, Self-Employed and Contractors

We have had many queries from clients who are sole traders, partners in partnerships, and contractors as to whether they can get the wages subsidy. The answer is yes, provided you meet the necessary criteria.

Contact Anna at anna@savage.co.nz if you need help filling in the application

Keeping wage subsidy records

You may be asked to prove you have applied the wage subsidy correctly and we will need to account for any subsidy you have received when we prepare your annual accounts at the end of the year so it is important you keep a record of how you spend the money the government gives you for wages.

We have prepared a very simple spreadsheet that will help you keep track of the money you receive and pay out.

If we prepare your payroll for you we will do this for you and can send you updated figures on a regular basis so you know how much you have left to use for wages. If you want a copy of the spreadsheet just email neil@savage.co.nz and he will send it to you

At the end of the year please email it back to us with your annual accounts information.

Minimum wage increase

If you are an employer it is important to note the minimum wage rate increased effective from 1st April. Even during the current difficult trading conditions this is the minimum you must pay all of your staff

The rate increases from $17.70 to $18.90 per hour.

7th May Provisional Tax

If Sari normally contacts you prior to provisional tax payments she will still do so as many businesses may need to estimate their provisional tax down due to low trading / no trading in March and doubt about debtor payments.

As usual we will be sending out tax notices to you during April for 7th May payment.

If you have any queries contact Sari – sari@savage.co.nz 021-548-489

Annual Accounts

If you are using Xero or MYOB on-line and would like us to get started on your 2020 annual accounts please sign client questionnaires that were previously emailed to you in March, and send them to Sari.

Your bank may need these if you are looking for further support from them during these difficult times. We have two senior accountants as well as Sari working remotely from home who can work on these during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Remember, we are here to help you if you need some advice or assistance, just email or phone us, but most importantly please be safe and stay home so we can all get back to a level of normalcy as soon as possible.

 

Covid-19 Update – 30.03.20

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We certainly hope you are all well and sticking to the rules, everyone doing the right thing now will help businesses get up and running again. Having said that we are expecting the current four week lock down to be extended, to possibly eight weeks, and then restrictions to come off slowly I.E. – reverting back to level three restrictions for a few weeks then back to level two.

We have no definitive evidence of this but looking at what’s happening overseas this is what we expect. The real message here is we are in this very unusual and curious situation for many weeks to come and we need to be prepared for it.

Savage & Savage invoicing and payment

We will be emailing March invoices as usual in the next week, however these will not contain the same level of detail we normally include as we are working remotely and don’t have access to some of the information we use each month due to not being able to get in to our premises. If you require a fully detailed invoice we can send this to you when we are able to return to the office, but do note the totals won’t change.

We also understand it a difficult managing cashflow for many so with this in mind we will work with clients to make payment over time if required. We are in exactly the same position as many of our clients, we are a small business too and are subject to the same pressures of not being able to work at normal levels to generate income.

It is important we all pay our regular invoices on time so the economy keeps ticking over but as I said above, we are very happy to work with clients to arrange payment over a few months. Please just contact Neil and he can make suitable arrangements with you. His contact details are shown below.

Wage Subsidies

Many of you will have applied for and received the wage subsidy. You need to try your hardest to pay employees named in the application at least 80% of wages. If you want and are able to you could give employees the option to top it up to 100% using annual leave or sick leave. If it isn’t possible pay 80% you need to pay at least the subsidy rate. Employers are obliged to retain the employees for whom they receive the subsidy for 12 weeks.

Paying the subsidised wages

When processing the pays in payroll, work out what 80% of their normal hours would be and pay that as ordinary hours. By paying it as ordinary hours PAYE, Kiwisaver, holiday pay etc is calculated as it should. If the employees hours vary you will need to work out an average of the last 4 weeks hours. If the last 4 weeks are not an accurate picture of their usual fluctuations in hours you can average out over the last 12 months. If topping up pays with annual leave or sick leave, use appropriate pay code.

Please set up a spreadsheet or similar to keep track of how much of the subsidy is used each pay as any balance unused is earmarked for wages but can be used for other employees. If you use the full subsidy amount for each employee each pay period, then you wouldn’t need to track it.

Reconciling transactions

Sole trader

The subsidy payment received has no GST. Code to other/sundry income, change to no GST. It is taxable as it is received by the end user.

Companies that pay end of year Shareholder Salary – no other employees

The subsidy payment received has no GST. It is taxable to the shareholder when taken as drawings. As it will be used over a period of time and is a grant earmarked for wages, it should be coded to a liability account called Subsidy with Conditions.  We are more than happy to take care of coding if you’d like. We will then transfer the subsidy out of the liability account as it is used up and ensure correct coding and tax treatment.

Company or partnership with employees

The subsidy payment received has no GST. As it will be used over a period of time and is a grant earmarked for wages, it should be coded to a liability account called Subsidy with Conditions.  We are more than happy to take care of coding if you’d like. We will then transfer the subsidy out of the liability account as it is used up and ensure correct coding and tax treatment. Taxable to employees as wages.

For all employers (Sole traders excluded), the income is not taxable and it is not a deductible expense when paid, we will take care of coding and ensure correct treatment when we prepare your annual accounts.

Rent and Lease Obligations

The impact for this Covid-19 event is likely to be long and lingering,

With this in mind, we recommend you contact your landlord sooner rather than later to discuss your lease and rent situation. Many leases are based on the Auckland District Law Society form and depending on the version of the ADLS Lease form you have signed with your landlord (clause numbers may vary) you should be able to negotiate a reduction in rental to a ‘fair proportion’ of the rent and outgoings as provided under clause 27.5 (No Access in Emergency) of the lease agreement.

  • There exists an “emergency” that prevents the tenant from gaining access to the premises to fully conduct business from the premises because of reasons of safety of the public

27.5 (a)       Access is prohibited

27.5 (c)       Restriction on occupation of the premises is by a ‘competent authority’ (the government of New Zealand)

We believe that lease clause 27.5 can be relied on to enter into negotiations with your landlord.

We have seen a range of negotiated results and it is apparent landlords are prepared to share the pain everyone is experiencing, the question of what is a fair proportion of rent and outgoings is going to vary depending on your business and lease term and conditions but you should be talking with your landlords now.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Covid-19 Update 23.03.20

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These are certainly curious and challenging times for everyone in the community and we know businesses will need all the support they can get to survive through the next few months.

At Savage & Savage we are being pro-active and have set up systems to allow us to operate with a similar level of service to you, our clients.

We have taken the decision to close our office effective from 5pm this Wednesday

The Government has just moved the warning level for Covid-19 to level three and expect to move it to level four within 48 hours.

This means total lockdown for all but essential businesses

You can still drop paperwork in to us using the mail slot in the wall beside the front door. Neil will check for mail every few days.

As the majority of our clients deal with most things by way of email and telephone we expect this inconvenience to have minimal impact for much of the work we do for you. We have set our senior staff up to work from home and they will have remote access to our secure servers and email so we can continue to work as normally as we can in these trying circumstances.

We do understand these are going to be difficult times as we are also a small business facing many of the same challenges as our clients.

We will help you and work with you to ensure everyone survives this challenge.

We expect the government to roll out more support for businesses and we will keep you updated on help available to businesses.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for advice and assistance.

If you have any queries please contact us either on our normal phone line that will be diverted to Neil Hodgson’s mobile if we are forced by government restrictions to close our offices.

Contact details for our senior staff are:

Sari Hodgson       021-548-489       sari@savage.co.nz

Anna Patchett   021-276-7393      anna@savage.co.nz

Libby Gledhill      027-313-4382    libby@savage.co.nz

Neil Hodgson     021-445-142        neil@savage.co.nz

Most of all please be safe, take appropriate precautions, stay in touch with lonely and vulnerable people (at least by phone) and take care of yourselves.

Kind regards to you all

Agreements for Sale & Purchase of Property

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The Agreement for Sale and Purchase of Property that’s used for the vast majority of property transactions is the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand / Auckland District Law Society (REINZ/ADLS) Agreement for Sale and Purchase and the form is reviewed regularly to ensure it remains an effective agreement as times change. Changes take into account things like allowing for electronic (emailed) forms as well as forms sent by fax or posted and also various changes required as a result of law changes.

The latest update happened late last year and the current version of the agreement is now the 10th edition of the REINZ/ADLS Agreement for Sale and Purchase. (click this link for more detail)

The most significant change, and one that may catch buyers out, relates to using a finance clause to withdraw from a purchase offer. People who want to withdraw from a housing deal due to being declined finance now have to prove they are unable to get the money.

If a finance condition is inserted but money can’t be secured to settle the agreement the purchaser’s word was generally enough for them to pull out of a contract. But under the changes that took effect on 6th December 2019 purchasers must provide evidence, generally by providing a letter or email from the bank.

This is a significant change to the sale and purchase agreement with significant implications for prospective purchasers who rely on a finance clause as a ‘get out of jail’ card, if purchasers can’t provide evidence they were unable to obtain finance they could be forced to proceed with the purchase or face other legal action by the vendor.

In the older form you could specify a lender in a finance clause in the Sale & Purchase Agreement, this option has been removed in the new form. The new clause in the fine print in the REINZ/ADLS 10th edition form removes the reference to a particular lender. It now requires a purchaser to provide evidence, if required by the vendor, that they had taken reasonable steps to obtain finance on satisfactory terms.

Along similar lines to the changes to the Finance clause is the Building Inspection Report clause that many prospective buyers obtain, in the updated agreement if you cancel the agreement because of an unsatisfactory building inspection report you are required to share the report with the vendor. This removes another ‘get-out-of-jail’ option some people have used in the past.

Other changes include an optional toxicology report condition, a new process to resolve compensation if there are disputes between vendors and purchasers and fixtures and chattels have been removed and replaced with new definitions and warranties.

GST clauses have been revised, the time-frame for deposits being released has been clarified, references to fax machines are removed, tenancy documents must now be provided by the vendor on the settlement date and various other changes to language and formatting have been made.

It has always been essential buyers take legal advice before signing any sort of property sale and purchase agreement rather than relying on standard Further Clauses inserted by real estate sales people, this change makes it even more important.

The bottom line is to make sure you deal with a reputable Real Estate Agency so you are given good advice and don’t sign any agreement for the sale and purchase of real estate before you have taken legal advice.

Sari Hodgson Awarded FCA Status

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Each year the Council of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand recognises outstanding achievement in the profession of accountancy by awarding Fellowships to its members.

Fellowships, are awarded to members who are nominated by their peers for outstanding career achievement or contribution to the profession.

The 2019 awards are to be formally announced in a few days but we are able to share some fantastic news with you – Sari Hodgson, Director of Savage & Savage Limited, has been made a Fellow of CA ANZ this year.

The founder of Savage & Savage Chartered Accountants, Mr Noel Savage, was himself an FCA and Sari says she is proud to follow in her father’s footsteps. “I am also delighted to be able to help our clients succeed in business as well as contributing to our community whenever I can.”

Sari is a Past President of the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce, was the Chair of the Bishop Suter Art Gallery Trust and guided the organisation through the process of changing from a private trust to a Council Controlled Organisation. Sari has been the Chair of the School of Business Advisory Committee at NMIT for more than fifteen years. She has also written several books aimed at helping small to medium businesses. She is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow. She also supports many community organisations through Savage & Savage.

 

FELLOWSHIP CRITERIA
The member must have demonstrated excellence through:

1. Outstanding achievement in the profession of accountancy through his
or her career
And/or
2. Outstanding contribution to the profession of accountancy through
a. Service and participation with distinction to CA ANZ, ICAA or NZICA
or other organisations within the profession; and/or
b. Services to the community or business; and/or
c. Teaching, research and or writing within the field of accounting that
reflects positively on the profession.
The member may be nominated under criteria one, any part of criteria
two or a combination of these criteria.

Insurance consumers should welcome Fire and Emergency NZ review

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The Insurance Council of New Zealand and Internal Affairs Minister, Tracey Martin, applaud government review of current levy funding regime.

From the ashes of a Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) restructure has risen significant merger costs that, under the current funding regime are recuperated through a levy imposed on all home, contents, and auto insurance premiums.

In March, the Government decided to review the funding system with an eye to seek alternative solutions that are fairer to the wider population and insurance buyers. The move has been overwhelmingly supported by the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ).

“The current levy is a grossly unfair tax that penalises people who try to do the right thing to protect their assets, lumping them with the cost of running FENZ while also supporting access to emergency services for those who choose not to insure,” said ICNZ Chief Executive, Tim Grafton.

“The Government has made the right call to review how to fund FENZ in a way that is fair to everyone, simple, low cost to administer and lines up with what happens in most other countries,” he continued.

The benefits of the levy are not in dispute, with Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin acknowledging the services FENZ provide. “The establishment of FENZ has gone well and New Zealanders are beginning to see the benefits of a modern, unified fire and emergency service,” said Martin. “For example, FENZ has responded admirably to the Nelson/Tasman fire.”

But she, like the insurance industry welcomes the review and potential alternative funding solutions going forward. “FENZ, like the fire service before it, is funded by a levy on property insurance and there are flaws in insurance-based funding: property owners that do not insure are able to ‘freeride’, as they do not pay a levy but still benefit from FENZ’s services; charging people on their insurance increases insurance costs and can reduce the incentive for them to properly insure their properties; and levy collection is complex to administer for insurers, and FENZ’s levy income may become uncertain as the commercial insurance market evolves.”

“The Government considers that there may be better ways to fund such an important organisation,” she concluded.

This article was originally published in Crombie Lockwood’s SURE magazine

Moving on from cheques

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IRD recently announced their decision to no longer accept cheque payments for any form of tax from 1st March 2020. We will be in touch with those who for one reason or another (ie no rural broadband) can’t pay online to help you identify other payment methods.

Here’s what IRD had to say in their news release:

Cheque usage continues to decline every year. Last year cheques only accounted for 5% of payments to Inland Revenue and some people who used cheques also used other payment methods.
From 1 March 2020, Inland Revenue will no longer be accepting cheques if customers have an alternative payment option available. This includes post-dated cheques (cheques dated after 1 March 2020).

Around 90% of the cheques we receive come from clients of tax agents. If you or your clients use cheques you will be instrumental in the transition to alternative payment methods. There’s plenty of time before next March for people to explore their options and find a convenient and secure way that works for them.

There are many different ways to pay – electronically or in person.

Ways to pay

Here’s a summary of payment options:

  • myIR: You can pay by direct debit and make debit card and credit card payments securely through myIR online services. Visit our website (ird.govt.nz) and login or register for myIR.
  • Online banking: You may be able to make payments using online banking. Contact your bank for more information.
  • Credit or debit card via our website: Use your credit or debit card to make online payments through our website. Visit ird.govt.nz/pay.
  • In person at Westpac: Pay by EFTPOS or cash at a Westpac branch or Smart ATM.
  • Money transfer: If you are overseas you can pay us using a money transfer service. Search for “make a payment” on our website for more information.

Charges may apply for some payment options.

We are soon going to start contacting cheque payers (and their tax agents) to let them know about this change and alternative ways to pay.

In the meantime, if you would like more information visit our website at ird.govt.nz/pay.

What is work?

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There will be significant implications for many employers following a recent Employment Court Case. If your employees attend training, meetings, work functions or travel for work purposes you may need to reconsider how you pay them.

The case involved the Smiths City Group. Every morning prior to opening, the sales manager at each of their 29 locations holds a 15 minute morning meeting to discuss issues and talk about sales promotions and targets. The employees were not paid for their attendance.

In January 2016 a Labour Inspector issued an improvement notice to Smiths City that required the organisation to undertake an audit to identify where wages had been paid below the statutory minimum. The audit was for all employees who attended the 15-minute morning meeting who was on, or close to, the minimum wage rate and it applied across all 29 stores. The audit had to cover all current and previous employees for the last six years. The company was to calculate the arrears of pay below the minimum wage and reimburse those arrears accordingly.

Smiths City objected to the improvement notice claiming the 15 minute meeting was not work. In addition, Smith City was claiming the commissions and bonuses paid to employees ensured they were paid above the minimum wage even when the hourly base rate was at the minimum wage and the 15 minute meeting was deemed to be work. The matter went to the Employment Relations Authority and the Authority agreed with Smith City, rescinding the notice. The Labour Inspector appealed, and the case was heard by a full bench of the Employment Court.

The Employment Court looked at the Idea Services case (known as the Sleepover case) as the basis for determining whether the 15-minute meeting was “work” for the purposes of the Minimum Wages Act.

Smiths City argued that the employees were not compelled to attend the meetings, that the meetings didn’t put a significant degree of constraint on the employees, and there was no responsibility on the sales staff during the meetings, and they argued that the meetings were not critical to the business.

The Employment Court found that staff were required to attend the meetings, and that while there were different expectations of behaviour in the meetings compared to when they were in the store, that it did not alter the fact that their personal freedom during those 15 minutes was constrained by the employer.

The Court rejected Smiths City’s claim that there was no responsibility on the employee during the meetings, but rather like a training course, the employees were expected to sit, listen and learn the information being presented by the Sales Manager so they could apply it during the day.

The Court also rejected Smiths City’s claim that both the employer and the employee benefited from attending the morning meeting, by earning higher commissions.

Accordingly, the Court found that the sales employees who attended the morning meetings were working during those 15 minutes.

That left the Court to consider whether Smiths City had breached the Minimum Wage Act. Smiths City contended that when the sales commission was taken into account, all of their sales staff earned more than the minimum wage. The method of payment was justified by the company because wages, and commission, were earned over the whole pay period which it considered to be the correct interval for the calculation of minimum wage.

The Court accepted that the commission does form part of wages, but said it didn’t satisfy s 6 of the Minimum Wage Act. The Court found that commission and incentive payments were not earned for attendance at the meetings and were not connected to hourly rates of pay generally. They were achieved against targets specified by the company. The commission payments were deemed to be additional income earned over and above the contractual hourly rate, and not a substitution for it.

The Court stated that Smiths City’s method of calculation did not satisfy the Minimum Wage Act. The Court reinstated the Labour Inspector’s Improvement Notice. This means Smith City will be required to backpay, for a six year period, any hourly paid employee who attended the morning meetings.

If you have concerns about how your remuneration is structured and whether you are inadvertently failing to meet minimum wage requirements, please contact our team.

Accountants to comply with AML/CFT legislation

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Some time ago New Zealand has passed a law called the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT).

The purpose of the law reflects New Zealand’s commitment to the international initiative to counter the impact that criminal activity has on people and economies within the global community.

The first sector required to comply with this legislation was the Finance sector (Banks, Financial Planners etc), lawyers are required to comply with the requirements of the AML/CFT Act from the 1st July 2018 and recent changes to the Act mean that from 1 October 2018 accountants are required to comply too.

The intent is for the entire professional services community (lawyers, accountants,banks, etc) to help combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and to help Police bring the criminals who do it to justice so even though the vast majority of our clients are honourable people we know well, and have had a long relationship with, this legislation requires us to do a number of things with regards to every client

The law says that we must assess the risk we may face from the actions of money launderers and people who finance terrorism as well as identify potentially suspicious activity and that means more paperwork for us and a requirement for you to supply us with more information.

For most of our clients we will be asking for certain information when you bring in your annual accounts work, while we need to have compliant processes in place by the 1st October we have a year or so to collect this information about all clients. New clients will need to provide the information BEFORE we can carry out any work.

To complete the risk assessment we must obtain and verify information from prospective and existing clients about a range of things. This is part of what AML/CFT calls “customer due diligence” (‘CDD’).

CDD requires us to undertake certain background checks before providing services to clients or customers. Accountants and other professionals must take reasonable steps to make sure the information they receive from clients is correct, so we need to ask for documents that show this and we need to keep the information on file for a minimum of five years.

If your business activities change significantly then we may need to update the CDD

The minimum information we will need to obtain from you and verify to meet these legal requirements includes:

  • your full name; and
  • your date of birth; and
  • your address.

To confirm these details, documents such as your driver’s licence or your birth certificate, and documents that show your address, such as a current bank statement will be required.

If we complete work for a company or trust we will need information about the company or trust too, including the people associated with it (such as directors and shareholders, trustees and beneficiaries).

We will need to ask you about the nature and purpose of the proposed work you are asking us to do for you; in most cases it will be business advisory and annual accounts/tax work.

We may need information confirming the source of funds for certain transaction to meet the legal requirements and we may also need to ask you for further information depending on a range of variables required by the legislation.

If we are not able to obtain the required information from you, it is likely we will not be able to act for you.

Before we start working for you, we will let you know what information we need, and what documents you need to show us and let us photocopy.

While we may shake our heads at some of the requirements, the Act is bringing New Zealand into line with other countries and if you have any queries or concerns please contact our Practice Manager, Neil Hodgson, who is our AML/CFT Compliance Manager.

From our business perspective there is a huge amount we need to put in place, including various compliance programmes and reporting systems, staff training programes all of which will be audited every two years (NOTE – this is not an audit of you, it is an audit of our systems). We need to keep records regarding AML/CFT for a minimum of five years and this will be held in individual client files as well as in our various compliance documents.

And just so you know they aren’t picking on you we even have to carry out Department of Justice checks and credit checks on our staff as part of our compliance programme.

Chapman ER News – Employer Successful in Constructive Dismissal Case

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We have seen an increased occurrence of employees resigning and then raising a PG, stating that their resignation was constructive dismissal and unjustified.  In many instances they haven’t previously raised their concerns with their employer or the issues raised appeared minor with the employer believing each was addressed at the time as no further concern was raised by the employee.  However, post-resignation, the employee might list all of the minor issues trying to prove that a trend existed. They may even claim an illness that they believe resulted from issues in their employment.

It is reassuring to see the Employment Relations Authority reject a recent claim of constructive and unjustified dismissal by Kathryn Gifkins that she was forced to resign from her position at Marinoto Rest Home in Taranaki.

The claim followed two incidents; one regarding a false accusation of Gifkins dragging a resident and the other about her being stalked by a dementia patient.  Gifkins​ claimed her manager did nothing about either incident and so felt she had no option but to resign i.e. her resignation was constructive dismissal and was unjustified.

Gifkins was employed as a healthcare assistant at Marinoto Rest Home in July 2016. Two issues arose, shortly after she started which she said were of “significant concern for her”.

She soon realised that she was expected to dispense medication to patients which was something she felt uncomfortable doing in case she made a mistake and also felt it was a a registered nurse duty.

Her manager, Barbara Kay, said Gifkins did not convey her concerns about making a mistake and commented that Gifkins was “very competent” at providing medication and had no concerns about her confidence.

The Authority was satisfied the dispensing of blister pack medications was a reasonable activity for Gifkin’s position.

The second issue Gifkins had was with a dementia patient who became “infatuated” with her.

The patient told her he wanted to marry her and proposed to her. He continuously sought her out, giving gifts, making phone calls to her home and following her to the car park.

Despite complaining to Kay about feeling harassed, she said her concerns were never addressed.

However, Kay argued she told Gifkins she did not have to go to the area of the rest home where the patient was living, she did not have to care for him or communicate with him.

Gifkins said it was difficult to distance herself from him due to the size of the rest home.

The Authority member said it was clear Gifkins received unwanted attention from the resident, but she could not apportion blame to the rest home as options were given to her by management to reduce the interaction.

In May 2017, Gifkins resigned. This followed an incident which Gifkins described as “the final straw”.

Gifkins claimed that earlier that day Kay falsely accused her of dragging a patient when she and another carer were trying to lift a patient off the floor into a chair.

Gifkins claimed Kay yelled “Are you dragging him or lifting him?”. Kay admitted she said those words, but denied she yelled them, or directed them solely at Gifkins.

Gifkins said she was unhappy with the way she had been treated and felt distressed that Kay had not listened to her or been responsive.

The Authority member noted that Kay’s manner, along with the words used at the time of the incident, may have been “insensitive and unhelpful in the moment” and added “I accept, however, that Ms Gifkins was unhappy and resentful as a consequence, but I am not at all persuaded that the interaction could be regarded as a breach of Ms Gifkins’ employment, let alone one that could be fairly characterised as dismissive or repudiatory conduct that would make it reasonably forseeable Ms Gifkins would resign, an employer is under no contractual obligation to behave sensitively towards its employees.”

A constructive dismissal occurs where an employee resigns from employment but really the resignation was forced or initiated by the action(s) of the employer.

The Authority assessed whether a substantial risk of resignation was reasonably foreseeable and found that it was not in this case.