Lost in translation: Was a WhatsApp message a dismissal?

Day left that meeting believing she had been dismissed. Part of the reason, she told the Commission, was that she had asked Rueda when she should return her uniform, to which Rueda told her to hold onto it, as she may need it next year when she comes back. The Commissioner later observed that, if anything, this exchange suggested Day had not been dismissed. Day says that after the conversation, she was upset and called her father who then collected her from work, and she told him she had been dismissed. 

The next day, on 17 December 2025, a co-worker, Ioanna Ikonomopoulos, messaged Day to say she was sorry to hear what had happened. She then sent a screenshot of a message Rueda had posted in the BSA Team WhatsApp group that morning. It read: “Good morning girls, two things to let you know. First, Emma will no longer be working with us due to repeated punctuality issues.” The message was followed by a heartbreak emoji, and went on to share a new key password for the clinic and to ask staff how they wanted their bonuses paid. 

For Day, that message confirmed she was out. In her submissions she said it communicated “the employer’s intention to never have me come back to work, contrary to what I had been informed with a ‘temporary pause in shifts’.” She was not given a termination letter, and she did not contact Rueda after seeing the screenshot. 

Rueda told the Commission a different story. She acknowledged that the message may have been interpreted as Day no longer working at the clinic, but said that was not her intention and it did not reflect the conversation she had with Day on 16 December 2025. Rueda said the purpose of the message was to provide employees with the new access code for the clinic, but to not have them share the code with Day as she was not currently working. She explained that there had been a robbery a few weeks before and so as a security measure, she was frequently changing the access code. 

Rueda also told the Commission that she writes her messages in Spanish and then her phone translates them to English, and that she only meant to advise her staff that Day was not working at the moment. Co-workers Roccisano and Ikonomopoulos gave evidence that Rueda often sent text messages that could be a bit confusing because of the language barrier. Both also gave evidence that Rueda expressly told them on 17 December 2025 and 18 December 2025 (respectively) that she had not dismissed Day, but rather that she had suspended her shifts, and that Day would be returning around February when she had her university timetable.