An estate agent in Hertfordshire has won a key employment law case after seeking a payout over his desk position within a branch.

53-year-old Nicholas Walker (main image), who at the time worked in a senior position at – and was a director of – Rickmansworth estate agency Robsons, has won his Employment Tribunal case.

This hinged on his claim that being given a ‘middle’ desk normally allocated to more junior staff rather than a ‘back row’ position, amounted to a breach of workplace law.

Branch move

The saga began in 2022 after Walker was asked to move from his former branch in Rickmansworth – where he had worked for five years – to a new branch in Chorleywood but, a year after moving, was asked to return after his replacement resigned.

But Walker, who now works at local firm Gibbs Gillespie, was dismayed to find that he would not be returning to his old role or the desk that went with it, and would instead be sharing his job with more junior colleague Matthew Gooder, with a ‘more junior’ desk to match.

The tribunal heard that Walker was upset about the situation, taking the new desk position as a demotion particularly as it had not been discussed prior to his return to Rickmansworth.

When his line manager dismissed his complaint as ‘making a fuss’, Walker then resigned and took his employer to the Tribunal for unfair constructive dismissal. He has won and will now receive a payout to be determined at a later date.

Tribunal judge Akua Reindorf found in Walker’s favour, saying that: “Either becoming assistant manager or becoming joint manager with Mr Gooder would have amounted to a demotion by comparison to the role he was performing at Chorleywood and that which he had performed at Rickmansworth previously, since at both offices he had been the sole manager in charge of the branch.”

Read more employment tribunal decisions.

Pic credit: Nicholas Walker/Google Streetview