Miss S worked from April 2007 to November 2007 at a telephone marketing call centre operated by ESL, in Auckland. On November 30 she was sent home from work because she was upset about a workmate leaving the job. Later that day she received a text message from her supervisor saying she was not needed “on Monday or in future until further notice.”
Miss S was not contacted about further work although ESL was advertising for more staff at the time. Miss S said ESL did not respond to requests from her to sort out her work situation. She claimed that she was dismissed on November 30 because of earlier complaints about her supervisor.
ESL, in its defence, denied Miss S was dismissed and claimed she was a casual worker who left and did not seek further work. They also denied receiving a letter from Miss S asking about her employment status and it disputed whether she had raised her personal grievance within the required 90 days. The ERA said it did not accept that Miss S was a casual worker and ruled that she was in fact a permanent part time worker.
On the evidence presented, the ERA found that Miss S had submitted her grievance within the 90 days by sending a letter, raising her employment relationship problems, on 11 December 2007.
The ERA ruled that the actions of ESL were not fair or reasonable and they amounted to an unjustified dismissal by way of a text message saying she was not needed until further notice and then ESL not contacting her again about any further work. The ERA awarded Miss S $2,000 in lost wages and $3,000 as compensation for distress and injury to feelings.
So, while we may all like to be right up to date with our use of technology it pays to remember that currently, there are some things that just can’t be done via text messaging. Dismissing people via a text message is one of those things. Also employers need to truly understand the difference between a casual worked and a permanent worker (be that full or part time). I don’t have the time to do it in this article (but I have explained the difference in previous articles).
