Queensland woman sacked over text missing smiley face emoji

A Queensland woman was fired after she sent a text message that had no emojis, and she took the issue to court.

A woman has won an unfair dismissal case after the ex-wife of the business owner demanded she was fired immediately over a message that did not include a smiley face emoji.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) heard Phoebe Wang – who was overseeing her ex-husband’s Sens and Goya cafes on the Gold Coast after the previous general manager was dismissed – had smashed her phone on the counter, jumped up and down while screaming Kristen Gordon must be fired immediately after receiving messages from her about a staffing issue.

Ms Gordon had been employed by the business for about 14 months and was a casual working full-time hours. Part of her job included rostering staff and time sheets.

Her colleague, who was there at the time of the incident, told the FWC she asked to see the messages to understand why Ms Wang was so angry and found the messages to be normal.

It was claimed Ms Wang said that Ms Gordon was arguing with her because there were no emojis.

Ms Gordon told the FWC that she had been told Ms Wang repeatedly stated she “didn’t add any smiley faces! There are no emotions!”.

A woman has won an unfair dismissal case after being fired over a text message. Picture: Freestocks/Unsplash

Ms Gordon said that she was unaware her “completely reasonable text message” had created so much upset.

The colleague had also said she was offered Ms Gordon’s job that afternoon and was told by Ms Wang: “are you worried about hurting her feelings? Don’t worry about that we have wanted to get rid of Kristen for a long time.”

The next day after working a full shift, Ms Gordon was told by a manager they were forced to dismiss her.

Fair Work Commissioner Chris Simpson concluded that Ms Gordon was dismissed at this point, despite Ms Wang’s attempts for it to appear otherwise.

Sens Catering Group Pty Ltd had submitted in its material filed prior to the case’s directions hearing that Ms Gordon was offered two weeks paid leave “in good faith” during a chat a week after she was dismissed, and that Ms Gordon had agreed to return back to work afterwards.

No one representing Sens Catering Group Pty Ltd attended the directions hearing and it did not file further material.

Commissioner Simpson said: “The Respondent would probably have been aware that the Applicant was disputing her dismissal as the unfair dismissal application was filed on 14 March.

“I am inclined to the view that Ms Wang’s offer of additional payment to the Applicant as a casual employee and a period of ‘paid leave’, and the potential offer of other future employment with another business at the end of that period of ‘leave’ were attempts to resolve the dispute about the earlier dismissal, rather than either an offer to rescind the termination, or to attempt to maintain a purported ongoing casual employment relationship.”

Commissioner Simpson ordered Sens Catering Group Pty Ltd to pay Ms Gordon $5357.80, plus 9.5 per cent superannuation on that amount paid into her nominated superannuation fund.