Another day, another employee sacking by text message

Employees of retail chain Riot Art & Craft were recently terminated after the company went into liquidation. The 300 odd employees from the company's 56 stores are reported to have learned about their dismissal by a group text message sent by a director after weeks of assurances from management that new stock was coming in and everything would be back to business as usual.

It's an all too familiar story and an issue that our reliance on technology is allowing to become more prevalent.

• In 2011, a retail worker was terminated by text message without notice. Although the text message stated some reasons for the dismissal, the Fair Work Commission accepted that it was "pretty appalling for an employee to be terminated by SMS". In finding that the employee had been unfairly dismissed, the Commission also held that in the absence of a compelling reason not to, dismissal should be communicated by direct face-to-face conversation.