A female employee working as a P.A. lodged complaints with the employer’s board of directors against her boss who had been sexually harassing her. She was then transferred against her will to her previous post and charged with, what she called, “ridiculous offences”. The employer also threatened to sue her for defamation if she refused to sign a separation agreement which granted her eight months’ pay in return for resigning. She was given half an hour to sign the agreement and, due to this pressure, she signed it.
Subsequently, she realised that she ought not to have signed the agreement. Is she able to retract her signature of the agreement? If so, on what grounds? Could she successfully claim constructive dismissal or forced resignation?