A retailer, who summarily dismissed a regular casual employee by text message on Boxing Day 2010, has been ordered by Fair Work Australia to pay her almost $10,000 compensation.
In Sedina Sokolovic v Modestie Fashion Australia Pty Ltd (ABN: 671444920838) [2011] FWA 3063 (18 May 2011) Commissioner Cambridge said that dismissing the salesperson by SMS deprived her of any opportunity to respond.
It was not reasonable to dismiss an employee, he said, “without a fundamental process involving an opportunity to put a case, face-to-face, to the decision maker. The requirement for such a process is primarily derived from the notions of natural justice.”
Failing to follow such a process “can also infer a lack of courage to face the employee,” Commissioner Cambridge said. A dismissal by text, or without face-to-face communication, created the appearance that the employer lacked the courage of his or her convictions and “immediately” opened the decision to challenge on legal and ethical grounds, he said.
The employer told the tribunal that text message was the “most commonly used form of communication” between her and the assistant.
But Commissioner Cambridge said:“There is of course no comparison that can be made between day to day communication about a variety of work and non-work-related matters, and advice of termination of employment.”
Commissioner Cambridge said a text message was generally an “inappropriate means for notification of dismissal or reason(s) for dismissal“.
The case also considered issues surrounding casual employment, and small businesses and unfair dismissal.
Comments
2 responses to “Summary Dismissal by Text Message – Fair?”
I have also just been dismissed via text after working for a business for 8 months. I had no contract. Is this legal?
Dismissing an employee in Australia requires formal notification and a letter advising of the termination of employment.
It is not satisfactory to be notified of dismissal by text message.