Openreach Ltd

Case Summary

Mr Preis, employed by Openreach Ltd as an Advanced Engineer from September 2007 to July 2023, claimed constructive unfair dismissal arising from alleged breaches of contract by his manager David Connelly between December 2022 and January 2023, including performance review meetings, disciplinary threats, and conduct during sick leave. The tribunal dismissed the claim on liability.

The judgment document does not contain an explicit statement of the tribunal's reasoning for dismissing the claim. The document text provided is incomplete and truncates before the final reasoning section that would explain why the tribunal rejected the constructive dismissal claim.

Use these claim-type pages to compare this decision with other published tribunal cases, outcome patterns, and visible award data.

• •Whether manager's conduct on 22 December 2022 performance review amounted to breach of contract
• •Whether disciplinary threat regarding mobile phone during sick leave amounted to breach of contract
• •Whether 12 January 2023 performance review was negative and hostile
• •Whether change of commitment time from 6 to 20 minutes amounted to breach
• •Whether demand to work overtime without safety equipment amounted to breach
• •Whether manager's contact during sick leave despite complaints of bullying amounted to breach
• •Whether collective breaches entitled claimant to resign and claim constructive dismissal

1 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS Claimant: Mr P Preis Respondent: Openreach Ltd Heard at: East London Hearing Centre (by Cloud Video Platform) On: 13 February 2026 Before: Employment Judge W A Allen KC Appearances For the claimant: in person For the respondent: Ms A Jervis, Advocate JUDGMENT 1. The Claimant’s claim for constructive unfair dismissal fails and is dismissed. REASONS 1. Following a period of Acas early conciliation between 27 June 2023 and 26 July 2023, the Claimant’s claim form was presented on 23 August 2023. His claim as articulated in his ET1 claim form is for constructive unfair dismissal. 2. The final hearing of this claim was listed for 3 days from 11 to 13 February 2026. The Respondent’s application for postponement was refused for reasons given orally on 11 February 2026, but the case was listed to be heard on 13 February 2026 only to determine liability only and given the reduced time of 1 day. It was necessary to reserve Judgment. The tribunal is grateful to Ms Jervis who stepped in at short notice to represent the Respondent on 13 February 2026. The tribunal is also grateful to the Claimant and to all of the witnesses who gave evidence. 3. The Respondent is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BT Group. It runs the digital network to its customers. It installs and maintains the copper wires and fibre cables that connect homes and businesses to phone and broadband. The Respondent's employees install, support, and maintain the wiring, fibres and 2 connections which link tens of millions of homes and businesses in the UK to its customers' networks. 4. The Claimant was employed by the Respondent between 24 September 2007 and 17 July 2023 as an Advanced Engineer (Respondent’s term) / Customer Service Engineer (Claimant’s term). He resigned with immediate effect on 17 July 2023. 5. I was directed to docume…