Dismissal by Text Message
Employers commonly terminate employees in a number of ways - in face to face meetings, by email / letter, by telephone, and sometimes by text message.
A recent decision of the Commission indicates that employers should be very careful when determining how to communicate to an employee that their employment is being terminated.
In Kaye v Fahd and others (2013), a part-time retail assistant with 19 years service received a text message from her employer telling her that her services were no longer required: "I am no longer contracting to MCT as of today, therefore your services are not required with immediate effect. Regards Alex."
The Fair Work Commission found that there was no valid reason for dismissal and upheld the unfair dismissal claim.
The Commission found that the employee was dismissed "without any notice, for no reason and with no warning", and that "the means of communicating her dismissal, by a brief SMS message was brutal, gutless and outrageous".
The Commission in this case also agreed with an earlier decision (Sokolovic v Modestie Fashion Australia - 2011), where Commissioner Cambridge warned employers that if they are not prepared to dismiss an employee face-to-face, "the basis for the decision is immediately opened to challenge upon the inference that the decision maker did not have, in all good conscience, sufficient confidence in the decision to act with any conviction".
"Consequently if dismissal is implemented by any means other than face-to-face communication both the legal and ethical basis for the decision to dismiss is likely to face strong and successful challenge", Commissioner Cambridge said.
The Commission stated that if SMS is a regular form of communication between an employer and employee for rosters or working hours, it is "an inappropriate means for notification of dismissal or reason(s) for dismissal", as it deprived the employee of the opportunity to respond to the dismissal or raise any defence to "issues that may have contributed to the decision to dismiss".
View ALL articles in this Category |
