What is the test to determine whether an employee has been constructively dismissed?

The test to determine whether an employee has been constructively dismissed is whether a reasonable person taking into consideration all of the circumstances would determine that the employer altered an essential term of the employee’s employment contract such that it can be said to have terminated the contract: see Farber v. Royal Trust Co., 1997 CanLII 387 (SCC), [1997] 1SCR 846 SCC. Allegations of harassment must be supported objectively by the evidence and cannot be based simply on the employee’s subjective perceptions of the conduct in question. A reasonable person standard must be used to assess at what point, if at all, an employee is being subjected to repeated harassment by a colleague and is entitled to treat her employment as having been repudiated by the employer. The length of time of the alleged harassment and its severity are both factors to be considered. Clearly, the existence of trivial disputes between employees, be it in terms of length of time or severity, may not constitute harassment sufficient to constitute repudiation by the employer. Decision: