Victimisation / forced to serve 3 months notice 'for fun'?

Hello,

It was a pleasure to come across this very informative website.
I have a query which borders on the line of Constructive Dismissal, and I'm wondering if I have any grounds to serve full 3 months notice despite what I believe are fundamental breaches of duty of care to the employee.

- Been with employer for 5 years
- Handed in my notice last month
- Contractually I'm on 3 months notice
but...
- 18 months ago I transferred to a different team/department which does different project work. This was an official transfer that went through HR. But to this day I am still forced to do my old job and nothing else (because I'm the only one who can do it) while my colleagues in my current team continue to do what they're supposed to be doing and furthering their careers while my career continues to be blocked. In my last annual review I formally raised objectives to get involved in work that actually relates to my new department/team/role, that was 9 months ago and still nothing being done.
I've complained politely to the management and more recently raised a grievance, but they say there's no contractual obligation for them to do anything about it. That maybe so, but surely there's a fundamental breach of duty of care to the employee here?

- 12 months ago I asked if I could transfer to the Netherlands within the company, so I could live with my Dutch wife ; this was originally my own choice, but the employer originally agreed happily, although only via email. However the offical contract for transfer would take a couple months to complete, so as an act of comittment by the employer I was offered projects in the Netherlands while still a UK employee, then I would transfer officially later. After a few months being in the Netherlands on project work I'd sold my UK house, then a couple of weeks later they phoned me suddenly to say "oops, sorry we can't get approval for you to join our team in the Netherlands, so you'll have to stay on a UK contract". They then made me work exclusively on UK projects since then.
Now I'm homless as a direct result of this, and the employer wants to pretend this never happened because on paper I was always a UK employee. But If I'd waited to get the contract before selling my house, then it may take 9 months to sell my house, by which time the offer to move to the Netherlands would have expired. Now I'm staying at my in-laws in the Netherlands as I have nowhere to live, and I'm having to pay for flights every week to UK to serve UK projects.

Now the emplyer are taking advantage of myself having to pay my own airfares into the UK as with anyone else they would have to fly in from the Continent they would have to reimburse their travel expenses. So they're using me as a cheap way of fulfilling UK-only projects, because they know I have to pay all my own travel costs into the UK every week. I have written to my employer that I can no longer afford to work in the UK for longer than another month and I am now forced to leave urgently subsequent to my resignation letter last month. But again, they're repeating my contractual obligation to serve 3 months notice and they're telling my customers that I have to serve 3 months in order to make my customers happy. Does this constitute a fundamental breach of duty of care to the employee?

- Five colleagues of mine in identical roles have also given their notice period, but they have all been given permission to leave in 1 month despite being on 3 months notice. They're making me the only one to serve the full 3 months notice, and it is because they don't want to pay travel costs to fly-in my replacement/successor who would certainly have to be imported from the Continent. Is there grounds for victimisation here?

Any advice/tips most appreciated.

It sounds like you really need a bit more indepth advice, rather than relying solely on this forum post. I would not want to say whether or not I believed that your contract had been breached fundamentally without finding out a lot more information and seeing all and any written correspondence relating to this situation.

What it will boil down to is whether your employer promised you that you would transfer to the Netherlands' branch to the extent that it was logical for you to sell you house and whether they have subsequently reneged on that promise. Without clear written evidence it is just going to be your word against their (in other words a toss up as to who will be believed)

If you have been constructively dismissed (ie if your employer has fundamentally breached your contract) you do not have to work your notice - you can leave immediately. However, of course, only a tribunal can determine whether or not you have been constructively and unfairly dismissed, so you anything you do now will be a leap of faith.

Even if you have not been constructively dismissed but choose not to work your notice, the employer's only recourse is to sue you for breach of contract and to demonstrate a clear financial loss arising directly from your breach of contract. Not normally very easy for employers to do that.

Pete

Thanks Peter for the insight.

Actually because I'm being billed out to customers for my services, if I breached my contractual notice period then my employer could sue me for the predicted revenue from my customer that I would have earned for my employer if I would serve my full notice period ; that comes to about £50K, so not a good idea.