July 27, 2004
Belgian School Principal Fired by SMS
The Principal of a school in Belgium, Saint-Joseph de Presles, was fired by text message last June 24th, according to astel.be (in French).
Firing someone by text message as happened before in several countries. Here's a roundup of related incidents:
-- South Korean credit card firm sacks staff via SMS - South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer, KEB Credit Service Co, sacked a quarter of its workforce (161 employees) via text messages.
-- Thousands are sacked - by text - A UK insurance company fires thousands of employees.
-- Sacked by SMS - An Australian traffic controller is fired by SMS.
The first report of an employee being sacked by SMS I ever read about occured in England, in February 2001, when an office adminstrator, Zoe Halls, received an SMS from her boss, stating: "We don't need you in at work tomorrow, I'll phone you AM to explain - John". Other than calling him a coward, Zoe Halls had little recourse in fighting her case as she was still in a probation period. (cf archived article in The Register).
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