[5] The Respondent failed to file by the date listed in the Directions. My chambers sent the following email:
"Dear Mr Chen,
I refer to the attached Notice of Listing/Directions which required you to file material by 23 June 2022.
The Commissioner notes that you foreshadowed you were not going to file any material, and seeks that you advise if this is still the case and if you intend on participating in the hearing listed at 10:00AM this Friday, 1 July 2022 by telephone.
The Commissioner again puts you on notice that if you do not file material and fail to attend the hearing, the matter will be decided in your absence."
[6] The Respondent responded this same day including the following:
"…
Please accept my apologies for the delayed response, I have summarized a personal statement for your review.
Since I have no further information or evidence to provide, I confirmed that I will not attend the hearing and we will accept any form of decision that Fair work made on the matter."
[7] The hearing went ahead on 1 July 2022 by telephone, with Ms Gordon appearing on her own behalf. At the hearing, based on the evidence before me, I was satisfied that the Applicant was dismissed and that the dismissal of Ms Gordon was harsh, unjust or unreasonable and an order for compensation should be made. The following are my reasons.
SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE AND SUBMISSIONS
Small Business
[8] In the Form F3, the Respondent indicated that they had 1 full-time employee and 10 casual employees, 7 of them being on a regular basis at the time of the Applicant's dismissal.
[9] The Applicant submitted that the Respondent was not a small business as at the time she was dismissed, as Mr Chen had two restaurants he owned directly (Sens and Goya) both overseen by Phoebe Wang (Ms Wang) at the relevant time; as well as shares in multiple café businesses in Australia, including a new venture in Queens Street, a Sens café in Brisbane, another café "Two Birds One Stone" which the Applicant said she was asked to help open back in December; and numerous cafes in China, including Two Birds One Stone Guangzhou and Two Birds One Stone, Shanghai.
