Western Excavating (ECC) Ltd v Sharp [1978] ICR 221 is a UK labour law case, concerning unfair dismissal, now governed by the Employment Rights Act 1996.

This put him in financial difficulty, the welfare officer would not help, and so he quit so he could collect holiday pay immediately.

The Employment Tribunal held that the company ‘ought to have leant over backwards’ to help Mr Sharp.

The Court of Appeal reversed the Tribunal and held that Mr Sharp had not been constructively dismissed at all.

If he does so, then he terminates the contract by reason of the employer’s conduct.Hence, the Tribunal’s ‘whimsical’ decision was wrong, because they failed to separate the question of fairness from whether there was a dismissal.