A MARKS and Spencer worker who refused to move to the company's new store in Ulverston has won a claim of constructive dismissal.

William Carswell resigned instead of moving to the new food hall, saying he could not use public transport because it gave him anxiety.

Mr Carswell, who is in his 60s, worked at the supermarket in Barrow for 15 years before it closed ahead of opening the new store at Ulverston's Beehive Business Park.

According to an employment tribunal judgement, staff at the Barrow store were originally offered the choice of voluntary redundancy or redeployment to Ulverston.

The tribunal heard Mr Carswell chose redundancy, saying he would struggle to travel to Ulverston.

He said travelling on public transport gave him anxiety and his wife needed their car to travel to work.

But ahead of the move to Ulverston, M&S bosses told workers they had found enough hours for them at the new store to avoid redundancies and told Mr Carwell he had to continue working.

The tribunal heard that Mr Carswell did not turn up to work on his start date of July 29 2020 and was classed as absent without leave.

He was later invited to a disciplinary hearing and told that summary dismissal was a potential outcome.

Ahead of the hearing he resigned, telling his bosses 'in the circumstances, I have no choice but to resign and consider myself constructively dismissed'.

M&S said Mr Carswell 'unreasonably' refused the Ulverston role, which was an offer of 'suitable alternative employment', documents from the hearing said.

Mr Carswell won his claim for wrongful and constructive dismissal.

Employment Judge Liz Ord said: "Although the claimant had a contractual mobility clause requiring him to move to another store if required, in his particular circumstances, with his mental health condition and the safety concerns, it was not feasible for him to do so.

"Consequently, enforcing the mobility clause was completely unreasonable.

"Accordingly, the respondent had no reasonable and proper cause for enforcing the mobility clause. Doing so was a fundamental breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, entitling the claimant to treat the contract as at an end.

"He did not affirm the contract and resigned without delay in response to the breach. Consequently, his claim for constructive dismissal is well-founded and succeeds."

The judge ruled that Mr Carswell was entitled to be paid for his notice period.

M&S moved to Ulverston from Barrow after 109 years of trading.