CASE

The Charcoaled Chook (TCC) is a store on a suburban high street (like every other suburban high street) which sells cooked chickens, gourmet salads and desserts, seven days a week to a large, loyal, hungry clientele. One of the earliest such stores to open in Sydney, TCC has been open for more than 25 years.

The Owner of TCC, Lachlan Gilbert employs 13 staff, many of whom have been working with him for many years. Lola Sen has been employed as a casual retail assistant at TCC, for more than 20 of those years. She works four eight hour shifts a week and has worked the same days regularly for most of her employment at TCC. Lola is 55 years old. Following some medical tests, she was recently diagnosed with a medical condition that would require day surgery and follow-up treatments.

In late February 2020, Lolas husband, Raymond, who has been following the wage underpayment scandals in the news, learnt that Lola was not being paid at the award rate. Without talking to Lola about it, Raymond called Lachlan Gilbert and asked that his wife be paid the correct rate of pay from now on, and, that Mr Gilbert reimburse any wages owing to Lola.

A week later, Lola advised her boss that she needed to take a day off the following week for day surgery, and she formally requested sick leave. Lachlan, who seemed to be in a very bad mood that day, refused Lola the leave. Lola was surprised, as working in The Charcoaled Chook had always had a lovely, caring family feel about it. On the day of the scheduled surgery, after calling the shop in the morning to notify staff on duty that she would be absent, Lola took the day off anyway. She had the procedure at the local hospital and intended going to work the next day as usual.

Early the following morning, Lola received a text message from Mr Gilbert, saying that her employment was terminated. Shocked on receiving the text, Lola immediately called Lachlan. She explained to him that she had not thought taking the day off would be such a problem. His response was that she had become increasingly unreliable. He said, in the past six months she had been late to work on three occasions. She countered that she had only ever been 10 minutes late at the most. Lachlan said that on the 2^nd and 3^rd occasion, he had loudly said Late Again! on her arrival to express his disapproval. Lachlan also accused Lola of stealing chickens, saying that he had noticed a few weeks ago she went off with a cooked chicken at the end of the shift without paying for it. Lola answered that, it was standard practice for staff to take a leftover cooked chicken sometimes at the end of the shift, and that she had been doing this for 20 years. She said the staff had always shared this benefit, rotating the opportunity among themselves, taking a chicken rather than throwing them out in the bins for the cats to demolish.

Unmoved by Lolas explanations, Mr Gilbert said Well, the termination stands. I cant rely on you anymore.

CASE QUESTION (group)

what would be the most likely remedy or remedies awarded by the Fair Work Commission? 200 words